Dread Minstrel Of Konoha
by drakas3000
Summary: Emptiness... that's all he felt, then music came, shortly after, it left... emptyness, then she came - he was happy... then they killed her and burnt it all to the ground... he would show them what his music could do - he would burn THEM to the ground... all it ever took... was her
1. 01 - Forever, Always and After

**Greetings once more dear friends! And may I bid you welcome, new readers. I've woven the first chapter with the intro, so there won't be a dedicated 'intro' chapter like in COTS.**

**Basically, (and im purposely leaving things out, so as not to ruin the story.) Naruto will hear a guy playing music, gets abused by townspeople, guy actually talks to Naruto, they become mates and the guy introduces Naruto to music, he leaves after a while and Naruto meets Tayuya (hit that thing!) for a day, he grows up and bam! The reader gets hit by a bus 'cause he wanted to know too much!**

**I don't own Naruto, and this is chapter one!**

**Chapter one – Forever, after and always.**

**(By the way, I know it's been done heaps before, but I so wanted to start with the finish!)**

Naruto treaded towards the edge of the cliff with a dying Tayuya in his arms, as tears fell from his eyes, one of blood and one of salt, he sang softly; the first piece of music that he ever heard:

_Can't live!_

_If living is without you,_

_I can't live!_

_I can't give anymore!_

_I can't live!_

_If living is without you!_

…

A small five year old boy was scared: none of the villagers were beating him, the voice inside him was quiet… he was almost, happy. He couldn't show it though, not even in the slightest, for if he did another mob would be after him.

He was stalking the shadows, scavenging through bins as he went, looking for a meal. He then heard a weird sound; it was like talking, only with something in it, something _else_, and there were other sounds too! Someone was banging on something like a trashcan, but it was a deep sound, that shook through him, and a twanging sound as well. (Naruto like the word 'twang', the Hokage told him about it once.) The sounds suddenly stopped, and people began clapping, only to be quickly replaced with silence, and a man spoke.

"Thanks for making me welcome everybody! Alright, I'm gonna need some help with this song, a pianist, drummer and a bassist… thank you! Can you folks play "I Can't Live"?" There were three 'okay's' and they started with a slow… what's the word, king of like a tinking sound, and his voice went kind of high and sweet, a few _thrum_ sounds went in as well, before there were a lot of sounds, most of which Naruto couldn't describe. There was one thing that Naruto could describe clearly though: how he felt, he didn't understand most of the words and what they meant, buy the chorus just made him cry:

_I can't live,_

_If living is without you._

_I can't live,_

_I can't give anymore._

_I can't live!_

_If living is without you!_

_I can't give!_

_I can't give anymore!_

The man's voice softened again, and Naruto would have happily listened for longer when he heard shouting behind him:

"It's the little monster! Let's get him!" The group of four was joined by most of the people inside, who quickly came running out with all manner of weapons. Naruto pulled a trashcan down in the hopes of slowing them down for a moment or two, but to no avail. Two men leapt past the cans and grabbed Naruto.

"Let's kill the little bastard! This demon doesn't deserve to live!" The mob readily agreed and began to beat him severely, but one of them spoke up:

"Wait! We can't do it here, one of the ANBU could tell the Hokage!" the mob simmered and ran him out to the forest, where he tried pleading – even though he knew that it would do nothing.

"Stop! Why are you always hurting me!? I've done nothing to you!" This only proved to incense the mob, the leader stepped forward shouted at Naruto.

"You've done nothing to us!? You nearly destroyed our village! You killed our families! You think you're innocent?! You think you're an _angel._ Well you know what we do to angels? We spread their wings!" he slammed Naruto against the trunk of a large tree and pulled out two knives.

"Here little angel, spread your wings" he spat. He impaled both of Naruto's hands into the tree trunk, and sent an almighty punch into Naruto's throat, crucifying him and leaving him for dead.

He would have stayed that way if the singer didn't run after the mob.

"What do you think you are doing!? He's a child!" he roared, momentarily stunning the mob, before they reprimanded him harshly.

"Stay out of this stranger, you don't know what he's done to us!"

"It doesn't matter what he's done, he's still a child! **Ninja Art: Piercing Shriek!**" Quick as a flash he pulled out his violin a played a single, sharp note, they all fell to the ground, writhing painfully before falling unconscious. The last thing Naruto felt, was for the first time ever, the voices disappeared, not just quietened, or stopped for a while, but he felt the presence _leave_.

Naruto awoke coughing blood, as he always did, and noticed his surroundings: he was in a cloth-like building, it wasn't very big, there were some… faces? On the wall? No, they were made of something, like a building, and-

"Enjoying your stay?" Naruto screamed at the man who seemingly came out of nowhere.

"IM SORRY! PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!" Naruto didn't have the strength to run so all he could do is plead.

"Why would I hurt you? And what are you sorry for?" the man was simply confused, he _brought_ Naruto here.

"You mean, you're not going to hurt me?" Naruto asked, the man just laughed at him.

"Of course not! Ha-ha, I brought you here, onto something serious though, why were those, those _things_ trying to kill you?" Naruto shook his head.

"I don't know, every time they try I ask, but they just call me a monster and a demon, saying that I killed their families – but even if I did, wouldn't I remember something like that? And how could I? I'm five." Naruto explained, and then it hit the man;

"Wait, you said you were five? I'm gonna take a wild guess and say your birthday is October the tenth, right?" Naruto looked confused, and a little scared.

"How did you know?"

"Like I said, a wild guess. How rude of me! I'm, hmmm…. What can you call me? I'm… Kargoth, nice to meet you." He held out his hand to Naruto, who just stared at it confused.

"I'm Naruto… but what do I do with your hand?"

"It's, it's a handshake, don't you know? Whenever someone holds their hand out like this, you take it in yours and lift it up and down, some people can tell your character just by a handshake, most people just to it as a sign of friendship, or a greeting." Naruto looked confused.

"Character? What does that mean? And greeting too." Kargoth's cheeks went up as though he was going to laugh, but then dropped instantly.

"You're not joking, are you. Tell me, can you read?"

"What does that mean?" Naruto asked, Kargoth reached behind him for a book and held it out to Naruto.

"What does this say?" Naruto looked at Kargoth like he was an idiot:

"It's… well, I don't know what it is, but it can't say anything – it doesn't have a mouth."

Over the next few months Kargoth taught Naruto how to read and write, mathematics, taught him all forms of literature and poetry, and most of all, he taught Naruto music. If Naruto was any other child, he would have been astonished, Naruto now had completed the equivalent of primary school – all in six months! Kargoth also knew that he had to attribute Naruto's steep learning curve to the demon inside of him. Naruto stepped out of the tent and approached Kargoth, who was sitting on a stump playing a small harp and vocalising softly, not making words, but simply vibrating his throat – which calmed any listener immensely.

"Morning Kargoth, nice tune – errgh, eehhh, ghhhh." Naruto was seething words through his teeth and holding his head. After a long explanation, Kargoth could now recognise the signs of when the Kyuubi was becoming too much and began overpowering Naruto's mental defences.

"Are the voices at it again, Naruto?" Usually his fits would only last a moment (but were often prolonged if a villager saw this and attacked him, thinking that it was the fox taking over) and so when Naruto didn't respond, Kargoth became a little worried.

"Naruto, can you hear me? Naruto!" The pressure on Naruto's brain was so much that his right eye began to cry blood.

"Fuck! **Ninja Art: Mind Transfer Jutsu!**" Kargoth made a sign as though he was holding a small box before he collapsed – and entered Naruto's mindscape.

"**HAHAHAHAHA PATHETIC MORTAL! KILL! MAIM! BURN!**" Kargoth landed in a sewer that also produced an eerie yellow glow.

"**BURN THE WORLD, BURN THE VILLAGERS TO SILENCE ME, AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH**" Kargoth followed the demonic shrieking, and after ten minutes of running he found it, a monstrously large red demon fox.

"**FLAY THOSE WHO'VE DONE YOU ILL, OR I'LL FLAY YOU, AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH**" The sheer evil that rolled off of the fox sent Kargoth's head reeling – how a five year old could maintain his mentality was beyond comprehension. The sewer water then replaced itself with rivers of blood, the floe drowning Naruto.

"Naruto! Hold on, I'm coming!" Kargoth began wading through the blood trying to reach Naruto, but it was as though the blood was against him.

"**WHAT'S THIS? SPEAK YOUR NAME MORTAL!**" The fox shouted his demand at Kargoth.

"I am Kargoth; leave this boy alone, he has suffered enough!"

"**THERE IS NONE BY THAT NAME! WHAT! IS! YOUR! NAME!**" Kargoth just smirked at the fox and put his hands together, as though in prayer. He spun his hands so that they were tip-to-palm and pulled them away, revealing two small cymbals, about 6 centimetres across.

"I'm the last of five, demon; it is time you left this child alone. **Ninja Art: Sound Of Silence!**" Kargoth struck the two cymbals together, creating an almost imperceptible chime, just at the edge of hearing that reverberated to the fox.

"**Of five… that's impossible… what... what have you…done…**" The fox fell to the base of its cage and slowly dissipated, the chakra that formed his being was getting released into the atmosphere of Naruto's mindscape.

"There, it'll take at least a year for him to get back together. Naruto, hoe you feeling?" As soon as the fox's concentration was broken, the blood receded and Naruto sputtered some out of his lungs and came to.

"K-Kargoth? Where are we?" his vision was going double and fading, he found it hard to keep his head up. Kargoth placed a hand on his forehead and sent a small amount of chakra into Naruto, sending him into a sleep that was – for the first time ever – not troubled by nightmares.

Upon being ejected from Naruto's mind, Kargoth vomited several times at the sheer evil and _wrongness_ that the fox exuded.

Naruto awoke slowly and brought a hand to his mouth to catch the blood – but found that none was there,

"What? I'm not bleeding? Kargoth, what happened?"

Kargoth explained the fox and what he had to do, also telling him that the voices wouldn't pester him for a long while yet. Naruto seemed just fine with it, not shocked, happy, nor sad, just _okay_.

_Maybe I was wrong to have obliterated the demon, without all of that energy, it's as though he's just become lethargic. Let's just hope that the pros outweigh the cons._

"Tell me, Naruto, why do you always cough up blood?"

"Oh, that. A few days after I was born the Hokage put a seal on my neck – because of my nightmares I would be constantly screaming, so whenever I slept I wouldn't make a sound; no one else can hear my screams, they still happen – the vibrations rip apart my throat but the fox just heals it back up, ready for more screaming." This confused Kargoth, on many occasions Naruto told him how he couldn't remember much of his past.

"How do you know that, I mean…" Naruto looked confused for a moment, before his face returned to that blank state.

"I didn't, your chakra spike triggered part of my brain, I can instantly recall anything now, even from exiting my mother's womb."

_He's so… nonchalant about everything, what have I done?_ It was as though Naruto could read his thoughts; he stared straight into Kargoth's eyes.

"I can guess what you are thinking – have I done the right thing? I can't answer that question; I may have choked on my blood and died for good, I may not have. One thing is sure, this _has_ happened, and we have to live with the consequences, whatever they may be."

"I understand… but what if you were better off with him inside?" Kargoth asked.

"As I said, who knows? Although I can hazard a guess and say that I am better off without a being made of demon chakra inside of me." Naruto said this plainly, but Kargoth could recognise part of a joke; _he's still inside somewhere, hopefully he'll be back to normal soon._

Unfortunately for Kargoth, his hopes were not met: over the next year Kargoth stayed with Naruto, teaching him about the world and what was in it, and although he had banished the Nine-tails from Naruto, it seemed that his regenerative and learning powers remained behind –in the past twelve months Naruto had completed enough schooling to be most of the way through high school. Today's lesson was about psychology – particularly emotions, and what they promote one's self to do.

"… This also ties in with the four humour's of the body; Phlegmatic, Melancholic, Choleric and Sanguine; which do you feel is most prominent in you, Naruto?" Kargoth liked lessons that were less teacher-student like maths or science, and more discussion-able, where he could talk to Naruto and get his point of view on things.

"I think… either melancholic, or phlegmatic."

"Oh? How so?"

"I guess I can't say 'or', because I think im both, I see myself as an observer, looking at all points of view about a situation but never taking any direct action upon it – making me phlegmatic. But on the other hand, inside… I'm perpetually sad, not even that, I just feel… _nothing_, like I'm empty." Coincidentally, the Kyuubi took that moment to make his entrance. Naruto could feel him, but at the same time, couldn't; it was like a shadow out the corner of his eyes, when he turned to see what it was it disappeared. There was no screaming either; he just said one thing before leaving:

"**Boy… it's been a while hasn't it? Whether you tell him about me or not: you cannot trust this man… this ****_thing_****.**" Kargoth was staring at Naruto and was waving a hand in front of his face.

"… to Naruto, anyone home?" Naruto's eyes immediately locked on Kargoth's, that's new; ever since the Nine-tails has been gone, Naruto hasn't focused on…. Oh crap.

"He's back, but he's not screaming." Naruto's words were abrupt and to the point. Kargoth put both hands in front of him in a box shape in preparation for a mind transfer but Naruto put a hand up to stop him.

"You don't need to, he won't do anything." Kargoth hesitated, but put his hands down, when he saw Naruto's hand.

"Naruto, your hand is shaking – are you sure you're okay?" Naruto looked at his hand, puzzled.

"I… I _felt_. Not just sadness, but anger, hatred, sorrow, friendship… it's gone now." He flexed his fingers into a fist before releasing – as though he was restoring feeling to a numb muscle.

"Naruto, look at me: are you sure you're okay? You can tell me." Naruto opened his mouth and hesitated, but continued anyway.

"He, also told me not to trust you." Kargoth sighed and shook his head.

"Well he's an evil being made of demon chakra; of course he'll try and turn you against me. We'll I'm getting kind of hungry – I'll make a run into the village, you want anything?" Naruto thought for a moment before shaking his head.

As Kargoth departed Naruto went to their small tent and found his violin – Kargoth had brought him one especially for his birthday. He went fairly high up a tree before laying back and playing his violin. He enjoyed playing the violin because he could feel emotion when he played, sure it was only ever sorrow, and sometimes wrath – but at least he could feel. As he became more relaxed he felt himself become one with nature, as he played he fell in sync with the forest, their hearts beat as one when he played. Because he was relaxed when he played he had his eyes closed, lost in an old memory.

_They were hunting him through an old part of the village, he was scared, the villagers were throwing rocks at him and cursing his being as he ran. The wind picked up and their projectiles flew faster, hitting him harder; tears ran down his face as he tripped over and fell. "Why are you doing this? I haven't done anything to you! Just piss off and die!" The ground beneath Naruto burst into flames, but he was the master of them; the villagers ran as his flames struck out at them, turning them to ash. Naruto felt so powerful, like he could burn the world, he screamed at the sky for more wind to feed his flame, it obeyed. "__**Boy… I knew you had something in you… but even **_**I****_ did not expect this…_**_" Naruto didn't care that the Fox was in his memory, he reached with his mind and began to harness the demons chakra, it laughed at him. "__**Hahahahaha! You think you are strong enough to control me!?**__" The flames lashed out at Naruto, burning him as the winds picked up and howled, cutting his face. "__**You are too weak to control me! Now cry! Cry you pathetic mortal!**__" For some reason Naruto obeyed, falling to the ground and weeping. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean… no… NO! I am in control!" One of Naruto's tears turned to blood and the flames subsided, the wind died down. The fox was smiling at him evilly; "__**Yes… rip the power from me… take what you want… the world is yours…**__"_

Naruto opened his eyes to find it pouring down rain, the tree he was laying atop ablaze.

"Naruto! Where are you!" He could hear Kargoth's shouts down below, but he lay still.

"I did this?... How did my memory change?" Naruto stood up with perfect confidence despite the weather and jumped the full twenty metres to the ground without breaking his stride. Kargoth looked at him with relief then confusion.

"Naruto! You're all right! But, how did you…" Naruto just took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He played a few melodic notes that stopped the tree from burning and the wind returned to calm.

"Naruto… do you have _any_ idea what you just did?" Kargoth asked this in a low voice, Naruto went to reply before stopping.

"I… don't, it's just how I felt, I played that and these things happened." Kargoth couldn't believe his luck.

"So the fire… you were angry? And the wind you were scared, right? Well ain't that something. I'll be back soon, I have to talk to someone… sorry about the short notice, but ahh, well, you know that everything's in the tent." Kargoth shunshined away, leaving Naruto to his confusion.

"**Hahaha… see what I mean? You can't trust him.**" The Fox spoke, Naruto went to rebuke him but came up short.

"**Exactly! But I'll leave you alone, if you can answer, one, simple, question: how can you trust a man, when you don't know what he looks like?**" Naruto wanted to laugh at the Fox's stupidity, but then he felt himself asking: what does he look like?

"But… I talk to him every day… how do I not know how he looks?" Naruto went through his memories trying to conjure up his face, or even his height for that matter… but all he could remember is a haze – he doesn't know what Kargoth looks like!

"But I remember the feelings I had whenever I saw him… I _know_ what he looks like… but." The Fox's soft, deep laughter reverberated through Naruto's mind. _Soft laugh? He's changed…_

"**I've changed? Have I?… don't forget that I am in your head – I hear, see, smell and feel everything that you do. But no, I haven't changed, you have. That being said, I do understand that since we have been separated there is a certain… ****_dependency_**** needed for the both of us if we want to survive. So I'll stop shredding your mind – I'm genuinely surprised that you haven't gone insane already.**" Naruto was utterly bamboozled – after all this time, the demon is going to just _stop_?

"What's your game?" The Fox laughed at Naruto.

"**My game? Do I have to have one? Are you sure I'm not just doing this from the goodness of my heart?**"

"You're a fox – you'll _always_ have a game. And a heart? You're pure chakra, and a will."

"**Hahahahahaaaaaaaaa a healthy amount of scepticism, I feel I'm going to enjoy this more than I already will… but yes, there is a 'catch', of sorts. One, is that I know what he is – I'm not even sure if I could call it a 'he'… but at one point he will leave you, and he will give you an instrument, I will siphon some of my chakra into it – I need your assistance for that.**"

"And the second."

"**Hahahahaha! You catch on quick, boy. All I ****_ask_****, is that I observe – I will anyway – but I want you to know that I will always be watching you, your every step, moment, failure and success; I'll always be watching.**"

"But… why?" Naruto could almost _feel_ the Fox raise an eyebrow.

"**Why? Boy, I am a legendary tailed beast, be grateful that we can come to ****_some_**** terms.**" Naruto didn't like it that much, but he slowly nodded and acceded to his request.

"**Hahaha, things will be interesting, Boy.**"

Kargoth returned a week later with a package under his arm and found Naruto dozing quietly under the shade of a tree.

"Naruto, I'm back." Naruto opened one eye and then closed it, eventually coming to his feet and gazed at Kargoth – something was off.

"I can see that, what's with the parcel?" Kargoth drummed his fingers on the parcel and smiled.

"That all depends on how you answer my next question." Naruto rubbed his face fully awake and nodded.

"I'm listening." Kargoth took a knee so that he and Naruto were the same height.

"How would you like it to go back to the village? To talk to people other than me? How would you like to be strong? To be able to do what you did with the violin again? As many times as you wanted?" Naruto narrowed his eyes in uncertainty.

"What's the catch? This seems a bit good to be true, well, I would be going to the village much, but it would be nice to talk to people my age."

"Well then – how would you like to become a ninja?" Naruto thought about it; he had learned a bit about them, they were warriors beyond compare, they could assassinate and kill without anyone knowing, have animal companions within their line of work, take on forces that would make one hundred samurai quiver – and live. Most of all, however, they could manipulate chakra and shift the very foundations of the world.

"That doesn't sound too bad, and I get to see what's in there." Kargoth smiled at him and placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"But I'm not just going to train you to be _any_ ninja, Naruto, what I'll train you to be… put it this way, after your training you could easily take down a Hokage."

"Damn! What is it? That could topple a Hokage so easily?" Naruto exclaimed.

"Naruto, I'm going to make you a Dread Minstrel."

-**(AN: You would not believe the restraint it took me not to finish it there, but I've only done nine pages, so…)**

The way in which Kargoth said 'Dread Minstrel' sent shivers down Naruto's spine – both fear and excitement.

"A Dread Minstrel? What's that?" Naruto asked.

"Obviously, a minstrel of dread – never mind, you'll learn as you go – because I couldn't cover that even in a week. First things first though – what you did with your violin, you manipulated chakra, and you didn't even use any jutsu, which for a beginner-"

"What's a 'jutsu'?" Kargoth paused mid-sentence and looked at Naruto.

"You know what? Never mind – baby steps. You, tree, violin – I can get that; the question is how did you jump/fall twenty metres without breaking a leg? Climb the tree and do it again." Naruto nodded, excited that his training would begin immediately.

_Well I guess that's a good thing of the Kyuubi being back – he's showing more and more emotion every day, though he still prefers sadness._ When Kargoth saw that Naruto reached the top he called up to him.

"You ready!?"

"Yeah!"

"Alright! Now, just do what you did the other day!" Naruto nodded to him and took a deep breath – then stepped off the branch. As soon as both feet left the branch Naruto did something that he _did not_ do last time, one _teensy_ little difference.

"Shhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttt ttttttttttttt." The fox was laughing as soon as he was airborne.

_Crunch!_

"fffffff… fffffffffffffff, holditin holditin holditinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn." For a second there Naruto thought he would be fine – for a second.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKK!" Kargoth just face palmed.

"Baby steps, Kargoth, baby steps."

Three days later, after Naruto's broken legs and ribs were healed, they began his training anew.

"Okay, so I may have started you off a _little_ early, but from now on we're going to take it one step at a time!" Kargoth declared loudly. Naruto would have made a remark about 'steps', but thought better of it.

"And since we're going one step at a time your first assignment is….. reading!" He produced a cardboard box full of books.

"Let's face it – you know next to nothing about ninja, let alone chakra, so ta-da! Here's my first present to you as a teacher." Naruto thought that it was too easy; they both knew that Naruto was an excellent reader, and thanks to the Fox's eidetic memory he only needed to read the books once.

"Oh and, by the way? You're hereby evicted from my tent – you stink." Kargoth shunshined into the tent leaving an annoyed Naruto with a box of books.

The first hurdle Naruto came to was two days later; he had been living in the forest for the past year and a half, so he knew where lakes were for water and he slept in the trees a lot of the time anyway.

_Grrrlll _**(AN: how can you make tummy-grumbling sounds?)**

"I need food, sweet delicious-"

_Rwrlwrlrr_

"-food." He could make a fire and would have speared some fish but he had no way of de-scaling them, he couldn't take on a deer or boar because he was only six and a half, so they could probably step on him and do injury – not to mention the denizen of giant snakes, spiders, centipedes and birds (a few which could sweep him up and fly away with him.)

He had read in one of the books about jutsu that the practitioner would channel their chakra, incant something and do handsigns for a jutsu to work. He had three problems with the easy-three-step-success-for-jutsu guide:

a) He can't channel chakra yet

b) He doesn't know any incantations, and

c) , he couldn't even begin to guess what the handsigns might be.

So in all, he was royally hosed and screwed.

"Wait, I may not be able to channel chakra…" Feeling foolish about _actually _soliloquising, Naruto continued his thoughts inside his mind.

_But the other night when I was angry there was fire, when I was scared it rained… so maybe, if there was a shock of terror…_ Choosing his course of action, Naruto set out on finding a giant snake – with himself as the bait.

An hour later Naruto was running for his life away from a moderately-giant snake, it was five metres in diameter and twenty metres long. He was also trying to play the violin at the same time, _why isn't this working!? Im playing the violin and thinking of scary memories… oh crap, I was relaxed at the time._ Naruto tried calming himself down but to no avail, he was still crapping himself and the snake was gaining by the second.

"**Foolish Boy, how can you be calm when you are running! Turn and face your foe, only then will you calm your mind.**" The Fox spat the instructions at Naruto, who – as much as he didn't like to admit it – didn't have any other options.

He spun and faced the rapidly approaching snake and took a deep breath, he did a few experimental notes on his violin and then conjured up a terrific memory, he played three slow bass chords before drawing his bow **(AN: the bow on a violin is the stick bit)** back and doing a single sharp note.

Little did Naruto know that he was running raw chakra through his violin, the notes acting as amplifiers, creating an even larger effect – a trio of lightning bolts struck the giant snake dead in its path.

"Well would you look at that Fox? I even cooked it!"

With a hot meal in his belly, Naruto resumed reading. He had already read through four of the books so he had a pretty good grasp of what ninja were, what they stood for and what chakra was, the tome he was reading was about how to _control_ the chakra that flowed through all bodies and the air around him.

"So… yeah yeah yeah… ah! _When controlling basic chakra for the first time…_ yatta yatta, there it is: _Obtain a calm that brings you at one with the world_, yeah I can already do that…_ turn to the diagram on page 240… by observing the flow of chakra through a heavenly (or human) body we can see how ninja change the flow… _jackpot! _… to put these theories into practice, have a blade of grass on your palm and exude chakra, too much and the grass blows away, too little and it…_ yeah I get it, okay!"

Naruto achieved his calm state and began to breathe deeply with a blade of grass in his right hand. He visualised a small blue fountain of chakra coming from his palm lifting the grass up in the air; he opened his eyes to see the grass levitating gently above his hand.

"Alright! I did it!" due to his break in concentration, and unknowingly adding emotion, the chakra flow fluctuated more and more, before shooting sky high.

"Oh come on!" Naruto let himself fall to sitting, hurting his arse in the process, as he was rubbing his bottom he realized how he landed from his jump.

"I used chakra! I didn't even know how though… never mind, okay, let's try this again." He stood back up and relaxed.

"Attempt number one." He fell backwards exactly the same way he did before, but shunted chakra behind him, cushioning his fall. Right before passing out from the exertion, he had one thought: _ugh that sounds so wrong – I just shot chakra out of my ass!_

Kargoth had left Naruto by himself for two weeks – plenty enough time to read those books and train. When he arrived at Naruto's training ground he was surprised by two things; one was a half-eaten carcass of a giant snake, the other was that the air within a twenty metre radius was thick with chakra.

"How is that even possible? Even with the fox…" he muttered this beneath his breath then swiftly dodged to the right when he heard:

"Look out beloooooooooooooooooooowwwwww!" A humanoid shape fell from the sky at terminal speeds. He watched transfixed as the shape turned into Naruto, do a flip so that he was falling feet-first, see the very air _shunt_ into a small wave before Naruto came to an abrupt halt a foot above ground before dropping the rest of the way.

"Yes! I landed on my feet this time! Hey Kargoth." Naruto brushed him aside and lowered himself, placing his arms out as though he were bracing and was about to jump before Kargoth stopped him.

"Naruto! What are you doing!?" He asked in exclamation, and Naruto had to pause for a moment as though to tell his brain 'don't jump'.

"What am I doing? Jumping I guess – what does it look like?" Kargoth face palmed.

"No, I mean… _how_ are you doing that?"

"Oh! Well I read those books you gave me, and I figured how I landed from twenty metres, the first time that is, I'm doing… _that_. But I do it by redirecting the chakra flow and then shooting it out of my body, propelling me around." Kargoth nodded as though he understood, using all of his willpower to keep a straight face. _How is that even possible? Only the Hyuuga can do that, and even then, only for a short amount of time – and definitely not of this scale… Naruto, you might just be the greatest Dread Minstrel yet…_

"I see… that's very quick thinking Naruto, able to do that after only two weeks." _It must be the Fox's chakra! Only an immortal being made of, well, _practically _infinite chakra could do that._

"Can I see you do it?" Naruto's request took him back.

"Me? Uh, maybe some other day, what else can you do?" Naruto smiled crazily and nodded. _There it is, more emotion, you might be back to your old self soon enough._

"Alright, now throw a kunai, straight at my heart."

"You want me to-… ooooooooooooookay, nice knowing you Naruto." Kargoth thought about throwing it softly, but thought that a teacher shouldn't give his student any special treatment, so threw it full bore at Naruto. Naruto just smiled and placed a hand up – the kunai stopped! Naruto's brow began to sweat and he grunted with exertion; the kunai swiftly turned around and shot off at Kargoth!

"Move!" Kargoth had to shunshin due to the amount of force propelling it.

"Okay… now try three." Naruto was huffing but swiftly regained to composure, and he took a calming breath for some reason, Kargoth didn't know why. He was hesitant to throw three at Naruto, but he _had_ to see how far he could be pushed. In rapid succession he threw a kunai each at his left hand, right hand and chest. Naruto stopped the first two with only slight difficulty; the third was slowing down when it went past his hands and stopped just a small distance back from them. Naruto began to shake a bit, there was sweat on his brow and his right eye began to cry blood, with several grunts of effort, Naruto spun the kunai, but he was having difficulty shooting them back.

"I…can…do…this!" he grunted the words through his teeth but the kunai only flew a metre before dropping. Kargoth made one step forwards before he was blown back by a massive shockwave of raw chakra.

Kargoth regained consciousness with a throbbing headache, and a branch through his arm. Through gritted teeth Kargoth pulled the two-inch diameter, three foot long branch through his bicep.

"Unnnnghh… that's going to sting in the morning. Shit! Where's Naruto?" It only took him a minute to walk back to ground zero, and he found Naruto – miraculously alive? He had severe burns on his arms and all over his chest, but apart from that, he seemed fine. Kargoth kicked Naruto in the legs to wake him up.

"Hey Naruto? You alive?" Naruto's eyes remained closed but he sighed nonetheless.

"Miraculously, you?"

"It would appear that way, what happened?" Naruto sat up but spoke with his eyes remaining shut; Kargoth now saw that his face was also blackened from the blast.

"Well I told you how I do that – by using the chakra inside me and venting it out? It's easy enough to do that with a hand and have a kunai ten centimetres away, but it's extremely difficult – as I found out – to vent two feet of chakra from my chest, and I'd vent chakra from my pinkie's and thumbs to spin the kunai, well I had to vent chakra from my wrists to spin the kunai. Anyway, I had the full one foot diameter of chakra venting out, but I only wanted to shoot the chakra that was behind the kunai, so I managed to get the three kunai away – somehow – but the remaining chakra had nowhere to go, it centred around my chest and detonated exponentially, the force so great that it vibrated the molecules in my clothes and on my skin and… well you can see the results." Throughout the whole conversation Naruto kept swaying and grunting, trying to stay upright, but he kept his eyes closed.

"Do you have something in your eye's Naruto?" Naruto shook his head.

"Quite the opposite in fact." Naruto opened his eyes and what Kargoth saw made him instantly vomit: Naruto's eyes had burnt to nothing! Blood was gushing out of the two sockets; all that was left was the bloody red eye-stalks.

"Bluughhh, how are you… how, bleearrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh standing?" Kargoth had to help Naruto but actually had to _force_ himself to look at Naruto.

"The Fox instantly took over part of my brain – he severed the nerve connections so that I couldn't feel a thing, he's even making me new eyes." Kargoth shakily wiped the vomit from his face and nodded.

"We'll uh… have to do something about that… Naruto. Cover them, I mean." Naruto nodded, tore up the remains of his shirt and ties them around his eyes.

"Yeah… it'll work for now. Come on." He took Naruto by the shoulder and led him back to the tent (he didn't stink anymore, apparently).

Naruto had slept for four days straight before he finally awoke.

"Kargoth? I'm awake, how long have I been out?" he stumbled around the tent before he gained his bearings. He shuffled his feet around, nudging into things to relocate himself.

"Bed… Kargoth's bed… ow! Table... that means…" he rubbed his shin as he stepped into the morning? No, it must have been noon, or early afternoon sun – judging by its position.

"Kargoth? Are you here?" he wandered around for a few minutes before giving up and stumbling back to the tent.

Each day he would wander around for an hour or so before returning to the tent in vain, thankfully Kargoth hadn't moved the larder and so Naruto knew he had a steady supply of food, and having lived in the forest for such a time he could easily locate fresh water.

He continued searching for Kargoth for a month before the Fox spoke to him:

"**Boy, it's clear that he is not returning – he must have thought you were a pathetic pupil after that explosion and gave up on you. Seeing as how I don't want my vessel to be a stumbling fool before I give you eyesight, here.**" Naruto was confused by the fox's words; that is, until a red tinge overtook everything – he could see! Naruto immediately ran out of the tent only to be blinded again and fall to the ground in pain.

"**I have given you a watered-down version of my demonic witch sight Boy, demons don't like the sun. Hahahahaha! Fool!**" Naruto painfully crawled into the tent and his sight was instantly perfect, actually, it was better than perfect! He could zoom his eyes into extreme detail and make out even the slightest imperfection on the wooden table, but he was getting a headache from such detail and had to view things as a normal human would. It was at this time that Naruto took in a small box that was on the table.

_Naruto_, was inscribed on the top. He opened the box to find only a letter and a seal on the bottom of the box.

_Naruto, sorry about running out on you but I hope that we may meet again one day, but until that day I sadly cannot call you my pupil anymore – but I assure you that you will be a Dread Minstrel. Apply a small amount of chakra to the seal in the bottom of the box and your training as a Dread Minstrel will commence, but I warn you Naruto, once you are on this path, there is NO going back; after I found you I placed two seals on you and one on the tent, as soon as you apply chakra to the seal on the box, ALL of the denizens in the forest will be able to sense and smell you, the seal on the tent and one of the seals on you will be destroyed. When you finish your training the second seal will disappear and all other people will be able to sense you – how have we been able to hide this long otherwise?_

_Until the next time, I bid you farewell Naruto._

"**What did I tell you? You can't trust him.**" The Fox's words rang through Naruto's head, he sighed.

"I don't really care that much, Fox; for five years it was just me, I guess now I'll get to share the rest of my years with you. I'm overjoyed really." That feeling – or lack of it – came back to Naruto, he was just lethargic, sorrowful. Although that's partly a lie, although he _felt_ lethargic, he still had the drive to become a Dread Minstrel – he didn't know why… he just had a drive for it.

"So what do you think I should do then?" Naruto's question was met by silence, he didn't really care about what the fox thought, he just wanted to ask. Naruto placed a finger on the seal and directed some chakra into it; he felt a sizzling on the back of his neck and knew that all the animals and insects in the forest could detect him now. A shoebox sized box popped into existence on the table. Inside were several books, a letter and a small shoulder-harp, he read the letter.

_Naruto, if you're reading this it means that I've left you – my apologies about that, I'm sure I have a good reason. This also means that you are choosing to become a Dread Minstrel – and so I say good luck to you! Your violin is off limits for the duration of your training (apart from recreational purposes) and you must use the harp supplied, follow the numbers._

"Follow the numbers?" Naruto went through the contents and understood Kargoth's words: on the spine of the books there was a number, ranging from one to nine. He found the first one, entitled:

"_My first Harp, an introduction to the gaiety of music_? The 'gaiety of music', does he think I'm a gay? Wait, no, gay gay, not _gay_. And even then, I already know how to play the harp." One winter back Kargoth decided that Naruto needed to know more than one instrument, so he knew the violin, trumpet, harp and cello – but then Naruto noticed that it was a 'ninja edition', rather than a civilian one.

"A 'ninja edition'? That just sounds too cheesy, or fake." To Naruto's surprise the contents covered basic playing, as well as playing with chakra.

"Oh Kargoth, you shouldn't have." As Naruto leafed through the book a rare dark smiled touched his face – while he thought that what he did with the violin was powerful… he was barely even scratching the surface.

Across the next month the people of Konoha found that it rained everyday, and that there was often storm clouds above the Forest Of Death – many a time did people hope and curse that the 'Snake Whore' would be drowned.

Naruto had completely mastered the harp in all its forms within the first week, the flute and piccolo in the second and third weeks, he was having difficulty with the saxophone, however. Naruto was a melancholic soul, only finding happiness in distant memories, and when sorrowful in the rain, he was at peace. It is very difficult to play a saxophone when you are sad – at the least not happy. He finally found the answer when reading one of Kargoth's books:

_"Personal temperament has no place in music, we feel we play drums when we are angry, a violin when we are sad, we whistle when we are happy – it doesn't matter how you feel, it is how the _instruments_ feel. Even if we all purchased the _exact_ same instrument, even if we played the _exact_ same chord – they would all be different; as soon as you play an instrument you pass part of yourself into it. You may read this and think that I am contradicting myself but read further; while we do pass part of ourselves into an instrument when we play it, instruments already have an emotion, for example: if someone pointed at a drum set, an organ and a flute and asked you to assign them an emotion, I guarantee that at least 70% of you will say that the drum set is angry or brash, the organ is solemn or sorrowful and the flute was cheeky or upbeat. When playing an instrument it is crucial that you also take into account your current emotional state – although your general emotional state has no place in music, your current one does – if someone has just broken your heart it is difficult to play 'look on the bright side of life', and if someone just accepted a marriage proposal it would be difficult to play Mozart's 'Lacrimosa'. So here is what you should do if you are having difficulty playing a piece that is the opposite of how you are feeling: think of a memory that would be associated with that piece, i.e. If it's sad, have a sad memory, no matter how good or bad it is, even if you _really_ don't want to remember it, just for a moment actually _feel_ the memory, and play. As soon as you are playing with that emotion become part of the music – let the music flow through your soul and entire being and I assure you that you will play well…_

Naruto stopped reading, having finally received the message and began to play anew. He really could feel himself becoming one with the music, getting the same feeling as when he played the violin and changed the weather. The people of Konoha were grateful that the sun came out; although when Naruto finished playing the song he couldn't feel the rain anymore he played a particularly sad song.

As life in the village sped on by for it's in habitants, the years dragged on for Naruto. He was nine and a half, he was a master of all woodwind, percussion and string instruments – he could recreate all manners of symphonies and orchestras, just as he could kill his opponents, be it with nature, destroying their minds by trapping them in genjutsu, obliterating their ears and brains via instrumental chakra attacks, or stringing them along in a dance of death. He felt that, while he was an excellent minstrel – dread or otherwise – he was lacking real 'ninja' skills. He had perfected his chakra control, and after jumping he could actually glide around and ride the air currents in mimicry of flight, can vent chakra through all of his chakra points and had a fair grasp of hand-to-hand combat, but that was it. He knew no ninjutsu, gen or taijutsu, he couldn't shunshin and he had no kunai or shuriken to throw; his prayers seemed to have been answered one day when he opened his next seal-box. It contained a letter (as they all did) a dozen or so books, and a bag of twenty-five shuriken.

"Thank you." he spoke to the roof of the tent in prayer, because no matter how much he enjoyed music, it was getting incredibly dull. As always, he read the letter first.

_Naruto, you should have covered a good amount of the musical arts by now, and so I feel (well, I would if I was there) that it's time you should begin your ninja training. You will soon notice that I haven't numbered any of the books in this package, that's because how you go about it is up to you – although I suggest that you read 'sealing for beginners' before reading 'advanced sealing techniques'._

The titles of the books greatly interested Naruto: _Sealing For Beginners, Advanced Sealing Techniques, _the Konoha _Ninja Academy Handbook, ANBU: Are You Tough Enough?, Crucial Battles Of The Three Great Ninja Wars (Complete And Unabridged), Grub In The Grass: The Ninja Guide To Healthy Eating, Genjutsu: Is Seeing Really Believing?, The Ultimate Taijutsu Encyclopaedia._

There was also some chakra paper and instructions on one jutsu from each chakra affinity, but a small pink box caught Naruto's eye, he opened it up to find another letter and seal.

_Naruto, among many things, I'm also a realist – you're probably nine or ten, right? __Well, when a man gets to a certain age __Some things may be happening to you that are new, like __when you get excited you might __This is just weird, even in writing, just open the seal, it explains it all!_

Naruto was confused at the crossed out lines – what was Kargoth going on about? But curiosity killed the cat, he unsealed the box to find two things, a fairly thick book entitled: _Puberty: What's Happening To Me? _As well as a magazine called '_Penthouse_'. Suffice to say… Naruto didn't leave the tent for a few days, and he had to air it out after that.

"You ready boss?"

"It seems that way, go!" Sixty Naruto's surrounded the original as they threw two kunai each at the real Naruto. He threw his hands out and vented chakra from everywhere on his body, stopping the kunai in mid-air.

"That's good boss, now angle the vents so you can shoot them back." The real Naruto figured that an enemy wouldn't just stand there, so he spun the kunai to face random directions and fired them off, killing all but one shadow-clone, who had stopped four kunai aimed at him by venting his own chakra.

"Nice work, but that's enough venting for today, we need to work on your jutsu." Naruto nodded and they both went back to the camp site. Along the way, Naruto saw several groups of himself practising a different aspect of the ninja arts:

Tree walking, "I said 'walk' not 'run'! No one is getting dispelled until they can _walk_ all the way up the tree!"

Water walking, "Take as long as you want, we all have our own speeds of doing things. The one thing I want you to remember is to just have fun."

Taijutsu, "Now, strike in time with the beat! Ready? _Huh! War! What is it good for? Ab-so-lute-ly nothing!"_

Sealing, "WHAT IS THIS?! IS THIS A PAINTING CLASS?! NO! IT'S SEALING! A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH!" "Yeah but-" "BUT WHAT!? GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

And Ninjutsu. "As ninja, we bring quick, silent, death, to our enemies. We all have a wind chakra affinity, so we can be as silent as a breeze and yet as destructive as a hurricane. For example: **Wind Style: Wind Of Death Jutsu**." Three of the ten shadow clones were caught by surprise as they were decapitated, dying silently as their heads were eviscerated in less than a second. Naruto didn't turn, but he spoke to the lead shadow clone as he walked off.

"Number One, bring the commanders to the tent, dispel the others."

"Rodger that boss." Number One nodded and sped off to gather the clone commanders **(AN: hehehe)**.

With the clone leaders were assembled in front of the tent it would have been easy to mistake the clones for twins; being shadow clones they all had a tiny difference in personality, and when they are never dispelled these personalities flare:

Number One was an excellent leader; he was good for one-on-one training sessions or whole team exercises and stood to attention with his hands clasped behind his back and his legs slightly apart.

Number Two was an angry clone who had high standards and lowered them for no-one; he stood with his arms crossed over his chest.

Number Three was much like Two, he wasn't as angry but he had great expectations of everyone else, if he could do it why couldn't they? They were all clones anyway. He knelt before Naruto, catching his breath after a particular strenuous tree walking exercise.

Number Four was the ninjutsu teacher and a melancholic clone; he slouched with his head down, eyes closed and hands in pockets.

Number Five was a very gung-ho clone, the taijutsu teacher who loved music, he was laying down with his shirt off, tapping out a beat with his feet while catching some rays.

Number Six was a calm, somewhat feminine clone; he was always smiling and encouraging the clones.

Number One waited for Naruto to come out of the tent before turning to the other clones and asking for a report.

"The seal work is shoddy, but with time maybe, _maybe_ it can be good."

"The tree walking is fine, they just need to be able to maintain stationary grip for longer."

"The jutsu are coming along, we can bring death to anyone. The shunshin will take more time."

"We're doing great boss! We've begun to warp the _Iron Fist _style into our own personal _Force Impact_! It's gonna be awesome when it's done!"

"The water walking is going just splendidly!" Naruto nodded to the clones in dismissal, they each made a single clone and then dispelled themselves, the clones being sealed into a scroll. Naruto placed a hand to his head to quell the sudden headache due to the new knowledge and memories. He picked up the scroll and walked into the tent, he sat down and in a rare display of anger he slammed his fist down on the table.

"Time! We always need more time! The one thing I am running out of." One of the things the fox had corrupted his thoughts with was fire, specifically burning the world. Naruto had always seen the human existence as a short and pathetic thing – he didn't crave immortality like others who held the same point of view, he just wished his life to be over; but there was two things that stopped him: one was the Fox, he wouldn't have his vessel kill itself, the second was something Naruto couldn't exactly put his finger on. He didn't know what it was, but he knew that he had to _find_ something, he didn't know who what when or where it was – he just had that notion that he had to find it. The reason he was running out of time was because he needed to be strong when he joined the ninja academy; Kargoth had made a note of joining the academy if Naruto wanted, Naruto saw this as a means to an end – he craved revenge against all who hurt him, but not swift revenge, Naruto wanted to watch them fall through the years. He wanted them to feel _dread_, Naruto felt that it was ironic that he was a 'Dread Minstrel'. When Naruto had these thoughts and emotions he was completely into it, making grand schemes and plans, but when he played his violin and made it rain… it seemed to clear his mind, placing him in a state of bittersweet sadness.

It was a warm summer day, which was unusual for Naruto – for some reason he decided to leave the sun out, he didn't know why, but the Fox told him that he could use this time to stay in the sun and let his false sight adapt. The Nine-Tails had been working fairly hard to create Naruto's new eyes, but he was still not finished, so he had been getting Naruto to stay in the sun for longer so that when his eyes were finally create he wouldn't be blinded by the light.

Naruto was walking along playing his violin to a slowly upbeat song that he enjoyed.

_"'Cause it's a bitter-sweet symph-ony that's liiife. _

_Tryna make ends meet, you're a slave to the money then you die-ie. _

_I'll take you down the only, road I've ever been down. _

_You know the one that takes you to the places where all the things meet, yeah. _

_No change I can change I can change I can chaange, but im here, _

_In my mode, I am here, in my mode, _

_But I'm a million different people from one day to the next, _

_I can change, my mode, no-no, no no no noooo no no. _

_Everybody have a good time."_ He continued to play and sing, he heard a twig snap and thought that it was an animal.

_"…I let the mel-ody shine, _

_let it cleanse my mind, I feel free, now. _

_But the airwaves are clean, _

_And there's nobody singing to me now."_ A flute joined in his song and he continued playing for a few more bars before he stopped and turned. Before him stood a girl with shoulder length red hair, she wore a dirty grey jumper that was a bit large for her and a pair of black ninja trousers. Naruto dismissed her with a thought and began playing a different song.

"Why did you change songs?" Naruto's blood froze in his veins – she could see him?!

"You… you can see me?" She looked at him like he was retarded.

"Of course I can see you, what happened to your eyes?" she cocked her head when she saw his bandages. _How can she see me? I haven't been through all of the seal boxes! _Naruto discovered when he was seven that the seal on his spine not only concealed his chakra signature, but also himself – he was rather shocked when three chunin nearly walked into him.

"An accident, none of your business anyway. You should go back to the village, your parents are probably worried about you little girl." She stamped her foot and turned angry.

"I'm not a little girl! I'm nearly ten years old! I'm probably older than you, so don't act like a grown-up! Besides… im looking for my dad." Naruto wanted the girl to leave; he was both in fear and in awe of her. Fear, because she could see him – did that mean that the seal wore off earlier than it should? And in awe of her because, well, she could see him!

"Do you, um, do you know where he is?" _What is happening? First she can see me, now I'm tripping over my words? What's happening?_

"My mum… she…" The girl began to sob and cry; obviously something had happened to her mum. _Oh crap, what should I do?_ Although he was soliloquising in his head, the fox answered. **_Foolish Boy! She's a girl! Go comfort her!_**_ How do I do that?! __**Are you retarded?! Give her a hug!**_ The Nine-Tails was laughing his arse off in his mind – he understood why Naruto was tripping over his words, he was also laughing because he got to watch every second of Naruto embarrass the crap out of himself.

Naruto walked over to her and gave her a hug, his cheeks flushing red even though he had no idea why, but still the girl cried. _What can I do? I know!_ He let go of her and began whistling, then sang.

_I'm laughing, _

_I'm singing,_

_ I'm happy all day,_

_ Because I'm walking, on the Milky Way._

_No raindrops, no stormclouds get in my way,_

_Because I'm walking, on the Milky Way_

_Rocket ships and satellites go whizzing by,_

_Whoopsie-Daisy, I think I got a moonbeam in my eye._

_No bad times, no sad times no bad news today._

_Because I'm walking, on the Milky Way._

The Fox's laughter boomed in his head, but he ignored it and wiped a tear from her eye. She stopped crying, sniffed and looked at him.

"Wh-what did you do that for?" he smiled at her,

"Because you aren't as pretty when you cry." **_HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA! _**_What did I just say!?_

"You really think so? But how can you see me? And aren't I just a snot-nosed brat?" Naruto shook his head.

"Yes, I do think that, and… well, it's difficult to explain how I see – and you're not a snot-nosed brat." **_HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA_**_ Shut up Fox! I'm just saying this… well I don't know why, but someone has to look after her!_

"Well, my mum, she… *sniffle*, told me to find my dad out here, can you *sniffle* help me?" Naruto saw the approaching darkness and thought of a better idea.

"Sure I will, but it's starting to get dark; I live around here… you could stay with me, if you want." She couldn't believe her ears! He was going to help her?

"You – you really mean it?" Naruto nodded to her and she hugged him tightly, he grew uncomfortable and red._**HAHAHAHAHHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA DOES THE LITTLE BOY HAVE A LITTLE CRUSH? OH HOW SWEET!**__ Shut up Fox! Was I supposed to leave her here by herself?_

Naruto sat her down at the small wooden table and fetched her some water.

"So… do you want to talk about your mum?" Naruto asked gently, she sniffed once and nodded her head.

"I was out training one day… and it was time to go home… the house was *sniffle* it was on fire. I screamed and… I ran inside *sniffle* when I got there my mum… she *sniffle* she was bleeding everywhere! Someone murdered her! I ran over to her, and… all she told me was that my dad was in the Leaf forests… and… I tried to get people to help me… but *sniffle* no one would. They said… they said that *sniffle* it's what she gets for… marrying a monster! What did my dad ever do to them?! Then, some of them tried… to kill me! My teacher… he saved me a-and told me to run… they killed him… why! Why did they kill him!" she started to cry again but wiped away her own tears and spoke again.

"He shouted one thing out to me though… I don't even know what it means: "You are next in line! Assemble the five to take out the One!" Do you know what it means?" Naruto shook his head and felt the Fox growling in his head. **_She's one of them! Mark my words, Boy: she'll be the end of you if you stay near her._**_ What could she do to me? I mean- __**Foolish Boy!... Ignorance shall be your downfall!**_The Fox shut up after that and Naruto felt their mental connection sever… the Nine-Tails was still there, but he could only faintly feel his residual presence.

"I-I'm soory for this *sniffle* sob-story, I didn't mean to… to lay it on you like that… it's just… my whole family's gone… My name's Tayuya by the way, what's yours?" She wiped away the rest of her tears and held out her hand.

"I'm Naruto. It's getting pretty late; we'll talk more in the morning… I'm uh, sorry about your family, condolences." She nodded in thanks then looked around the tent.

"So… where will I be sleeping?"

"My bed of course, I'll be sleeping outside." She looked at him, shocked.

"You can't sleep outside! There's heaps of animals out there that could kill you! I'll sleep on the ground, you take your bed." Naruto wouldn't hear of it.

"Nope, trust me Tayuya, I've faced worse, and if I don't stand guard outside, who'll look after you?" _Why did I say that!?_ She blushed at his remark.

"Well, when you put it that way, goodnight Naruto, and… thank you." Naruto bade her goodnight and set up a few shadow clone sentries before laying against a tree and falling asleep.

Naruto awoke from under the tree and opened his phantom eyes, viewing the world as always with a red glare to everything. He checked that Tayuya was still sleeping before unsealing his clone leaders, he explained the situation to them, and so they shouldn't be surprised if a redheaded girl can see them.

"Also, we need to move the schedule forwards, I'm going to triple the amount of clone that I usually give you – the people who are hunting Tayuya could arrive at any time, granted, they might not turn up at all. **Shadow Clone Jutsu!** Dismissed!" Naruto nodded to number one and they both vented chakra so that they were one hundred metres in the air and gliding, eventually landing at Naruto's private training spot. One turned to Naruto.

"Hey boss, what's up with you?" Naruto was a bit confused,

"What do you mean, One?"

"You seem… happy, chipper, hell I'd use the word _alive_ in this case. Did something happen with Tayuya?" Naruto shook his head and hands 'no'.

"No chance, I just met here, I'm just taking responsibility for her – she's lost her family and everything."

"She was also called a monster and was nearly killed – if only for a day – does that ring any bells?"

"What are you getting at?"

"Look boss, all I'm saying is… well, I'm saying nothing, it's good to see you… not sad. Anyway, today I wanted to have a spar with you – it's all well and good having the knowledge, but let's see you put it into practice." They nodded to each other and took up the _Iron Fist _stance.

**(AN: for those who don't know what the Iron Fist is, it's Rock and Might's fighting style, also AN means Author Note [it took me ages to figure that out])**

They sparred for half-hour before Number One stopped the spar. Both fell to the ground panting,

"Okay… boss, it looks…. Like… we'll have to… do this more often, whew!"

"Yeah… I didn't think… that'd take… as much as it did." they eventually regained their breath and stood up, jumped in the air and glided back to the main training ground. Naruto nodded to Number One who went around to each of the groups, seeing what they were doing and joining in on some. Naruto entered the tent to find Tayuya sobbing quietly; she looked up to see him standing there, ran over and embraced him tightly.

"Naruto! I thought *sob* you left me alone. I *sob* don't want to be *sob* alone anymore, please don't leave me*sob* like that again!" Naruto was completely taken aback: he was only gone for a short while.

"It's-It's fine Tayuya, let it all out… I didn't leave, I was just training… I'm… I'm not going to leave you, Tayuya." She took her face out of his chest and looked at – well she couldn't look at his eyes – his face with tears in her eyes.

"Promise me Naruto! Promise me that you won't leave me alone!" Naruto's next words were the first step on the road to his death:

"Of course Tayuya, I promise that I'll never leave you: I'll be with you, forever, always and after."

**(AN: I would have ended this chapter right here, but I still have a few hours before I can go online, so on with the fic!)**

After their rather passionate moment, Naruto made them breakfast. When they had finished he opened the tent and showed her what he was doing.

"I was just training, see. I had plenty of clones out here you could have talked to." She shook her head.

"But they're not you, they're clones, I could tell the difference." Naruto raised an eyebrow under his bandages.

"How could you tell the difference?" she seemed uncomfortable at the question,

"I… they look different form you… I'm not supposed to tell you…" Naruto let it drop.

"It's okay, you don't have to explain. But, um… I have to train every day, I won't be able to be with you all the time." She grabbed one of his hands and looked at his 'eyes'.

"What if I train with you?"

"Uhhh, I'm not sure… you probably wouldn't get-"

"Get what? It's ninja training; I've been training for years." Naruto's mouth hung agape.

"For years? What were you taught?"

"Lots of things, I can walk on water, walk up trees, I'm not that great at taijutsu but I know a bit, I can attack enemies with jutsu via my instrument-" This caught Naruto's ears, Kargoth had once told him that few people could do it, they could make weapons that utilised sounds and attack with them **(AN: Zaku's wind holes and Dosu's Melody Arm)** but it was rare that people could use an instrument and attack _through_ it – he also told him that the Dread Minstrels were an ancient order, they had banks, contacts and safe houses all across the world, but there were only ever five actual Dread Minstrels at any one time, and only up to five apprentices at any one time – the most being three, during the second great ninja war. The reason why there were so few Minstrels was because they were persecuted and executed by most people encountered; luckily, the last public Minstrel was killed decades ago, and all knowledge of their existence was eradicated. When Naruto asked why this was so, Kargoth shook his head and said: "People fear what they don't understand – like the Fox."

"_Through_ your instrument? Tayuya – who taught you that?" She slapped her hands over her mouth and then removed them.

"I'm not supposed to tell you –"

"Tayuya, please you _have _to tell me, it's very important to me and my mentor." She shook her head sadly.

"Naruto, the world isn't ready to know of our existence yet." Naruto immediately smiled – it was one of the last things Kargoth taught him, it was a code used between Minstrels when they did not want to say who they really were, it also had a countersign:

"It must be a sad existence, not having anyone know of you." She looked at him slowly.

"You mean, you… you're a Dread Minstrel?" he smiled in return.

"You bet it, so who were you taught by? I can see why you don't want to be alone though." She was somewhat confused by his statement.

"What do you mean? I was taught by the Keepers, my family helped me as well… what do you mean by understanding me being alone?" It was his turn to be confused,

"The Keepers, who are they? I was taught by one of the Dread Minstrels, well, until he left – but he left me with everything that I would need to become a Dread Minstrel, and… well, I guess you could say that I was kicked out of my village, since I was five I have been living in the forest with my mentor, and I've been by myself since I was six and a half… you're really the third person that I've really talked to." She was shocked by all of what he said, but one thing shocked her above all else:

"You were taught… by a Dread Minstrel?"

"Well yeah, weren't you? Who are the 'Keepers', by the way?" she stood back a bit and let go of his hand, brushed off her jumper and bowed.

"I'm sorry, My Lord, I didn't know who I was speaking to, please forgive me." Naruto quickly stood her up from her bow.

"Whoa! What are you talking about?" She was looking at him like he was telling a bad joke,

"Y-You were taught by a real live Dread Minstrel! You are one of the Chosen, but… how is this possible, there haven't been…" she began mumbling under her breath.

"Hey, what are you talking about? Im a 'Chosen'? What does that even mean? And you still haven't told me who the Keepers are either." She looked up at him and then looked around.

"Can we go inside? People could be listening." Naruto was going to tell her that he had sentries set up all throughout the forest, but thought better of it and nodded instead, opening the flap of the tent and leading her in.

"The Keepers train the apprentice Dread Minstrels, I was the only one they ever taught… there is usually little to no contact between current Dread Minstrels and apprentices, but I thought there were no current Minstrels… tell me, who taught you?"

"He told me to call him Kargoth, but I don't think that was his real name." Tayuya thought for a moment,

"I can recall all past Dread Minstrels, none had the name 'Kargoth', did he give you a number? What was his rank?"

"Oh yeah… he did say once that he was the 'last of five', so maybe he's number five?" Upon saying that, Tayuya began to shake and cry.

"That bastard… that, that fucking bastard! He was here! And he-he taught you!?" she began pounding Naruto's chest as she cried (none too lightly either), Naruto had to hold her wrists so she wouldn't hurt either of them.

"Easy Tayuya! What happened? What's wrong?" she looked at him with venom in her eyes.

"What happened? That fucking bastard killed my dad! That's what happened!" Naruto couldn't rebut her without making her ay angrier so he just chose to hold her, restraining her but hugging her at the same time. Eventually she calmed down enough that Naruto could let her go, which caused her to cry anew.

"I'm sorry! *sob* please, please don't leave *sob* me!" He immediately embraced her again – part of him thought that it was getting rather redundant – and patted her back.

"It's okay Tayuya; I'm not going to leave you."

"But…*sob* but I, I hit you*sob* and-"

"Tayuya, Tayuya look at me. I'm not going to leave you, okay? Just close your eyes…" he began to hum _As Time Goes By_ and due to her tirade of emotions she quickly fell asleep. He held her for a while longer, enjoying her close proximity, the beat of her heat, the warmth of her body… the genuine happiness. He slowly lowered her onto her bed and sat at the table, pulled out one of Kargoth's diaries and began to look for clue as to why he would kill Tayuya's dad.

**(AN: Was going to end it here/there, but I've still got a few minutes left – c'mon grand conclusion to first chapter!)**

**As it turns out – im out of time, but rejoice (if you didn't think that this was a crap chapter), I will have the second chapter posted on Sunday – that's three days for non Aussies.**

**Apologies to thecreatorofpolides, who was the winner of the instrument-guessing-contest, by the way, he was the only person to PM me, at least he (or she) got it first shot.**

**One last note before I go, I felt that in COTS I gave Naruto way too much: he was invincible, he had a magic form, he had an even magic-er form, he knew death jutsu, he didn't need handsigns, he had two animals, he had wings, he had an epic scythe, etc. For this one, I'm trying really hard to contain what he can do, and Keep It Simple, Stupid.**

**Until next time,**

**Chapter 02 – Broken Promises and Burning Revenge.**

**No musical quote, apologies again.**


	2. 02 - Broken Promises and Burning Revenge

**Greetings! Chapter two of DMOK…. That's not very catchy, chapter two of Dread Minstrel Of Konoha! Better, but not by much… away we go, don't own Naruto!**

Naruto was reading through Kargoth's journals, when he may have finally come across something about Tayuya's dad and why Kargoth killed him:

_…Caused me great sorrow to kill that man, at least he knew that it was coming, unlike the others that die in our profession. I am loathe to even write his name due to what transpired between us, but it is better for us all that he is dead; although it does incite regret within me that I created a widow and fatherless child – but one day, once my work is completed they may see why this has all been necessary._

Naruto turned the page only to find that it began with a new entry that had nothing to do with Tayuya's dad.

"What is this 'work' that he mentions… I can't find any other entries about it…" Tayuya began to wake up, so Naruto stooped next to here.

"It's alright, I'm right here Tayuya." She smiled softly to him and rose off of the bedroll.

"How long was I asleep?"

"A few hours, its one now… do you, want to talk?" She seemed hesitant at first but then nodded.

"I guess I owe it to you." He brought her a glass of water and a sandwich.

"Thanks… so where do I begin?"

"Well, you said that you came here looking for your dad, but then you said, that Kargoth killed him." She nodded sadly.

"Sorry to deceive you like that… people believe you more if you're looking for a parent…" Naruto understood, deception was the greatest weapon at a ninja's disposal.

"So who are the Keepers that you mentioned?"

"The Keepers train the potential apprentices, the future Dread Minstrels, but that's not all they do, they retain, document and guard all the secrets and lore behind the Dread Minstrels… but now, they're all dead." She wiped another tear from her eye.

"I know it's a touchy subject… but who exactly is Kargoth? And, what did he have to do with your dad?" He asked the question hesitantly, not wanting her to burst into tears again.

"My dad… I don't really know much about him, he left when I was three or four, I remember him kissing me on the head saying that I might not see him around anymore… the next day my mum told me… that he had been murdered. I always asked the Keepers about my dad and the man who murdered him… they said that all would be revealed when I became a Dread Minstrel, but they only ever referred to the murdered as the 'Black Minstrel', because of his betrayal. They told me that he was consumed by greed and revenge…" She seemed to relax slightly now that she had gotten it off her chest.

"We'll find Kargoth; he has a lot to answer for." Tayuya looked at him with renewed hope.

"You'll help me? But… even though he's evil… wasn't he your teacher?" Naruto sighed; this was beginning to get complicated.

"He was my teacher, he saved my life even… but, although he didn't act evil towards me, we both have questions that he needs to answer. Come on, we've talked for long enough, let's go out for a bit." Tayuya nodded, taking his hand and following his lead. Naruto received a summary from Number One, the general prognosis being that the commanders were easily coping with the added clones, and were progressing at a much faster rate. Number One also said that he would allow Naruto the afternoon off, so that he had more time with Tayuya (though he didn't say it).

"Hey Naruto, how come you don't go into the village?" Naruto sighed, could he tell Tayuya about the Kyuubi?

"It's… complicated, just trust me when I say that it's better for both the villagers and I if I stay in the forest." Tayuya knew that there was a _lot_ that Naruto wasn't telling her, but she didn't push it, he had already listened to her tale – not to mention take her in.

"It's just that I've never seen a ninja village before, is there a tree in the forest that is bigger than the rest?" A sneaky grin spread across Naruto's face.

"Hop on my back."

"E-Excuse me?"

"You heard me, jump on my back." Tayuya hesitantly climbed onto his back, frigidly holding on.

"You will want to hold on tighter than that." He felt her pull slightly closer to him, slightly.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." Naruto braced his legs and squatted deeply.

"Warn me about whAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!" Naruto shot several hundred metres into the air before splaying his arms and legs out spread-eagled.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Tayuya was holding on tightly with her eyes shut, screaming directly into Naruto's ears. _Owwwww! Block out the pain, the Fox put you through much worse. _After catching her breath and screaming again, and repeating this process another two times, Tayuya opened her eyes to find that, she was alive? And she was flying?!

"Naruto, how are we flying?" he laughed in response.

"Gliding Tayuya, gliding. It's something only _I_ can do… I'll explain when we land, but for now – you wanted to see the village right?" he angled himself to the right and circled around the village, high enough so that people would mistake Tayuya as a bird, but low enough so that she could see clearly. He circled around for a few minutes before angling back towards the forest, upon seeing that her flight was nearly finished, Tayuya hugged Naruto tightly from behind.

"Thank you for everything you are doing Naruto, for letting me stay with you and helping me find Kargoth. And thank you for the flight, I loved it." _She-she loved it?!_ Naruto's momentary lapse in concentration caused him to lose focus of his flight path and began a quick descent, that was getting quicker by the second.

"Tayuya, hang on." He slapped his legs together and pulled his arms to his sides, diving head first. Naruto hoped that while their speed would increase greatly, he should be able to pull up enough to gain control. The forest was getting closer now…. Closer…. He could make out each individual tree…. The vines on the trees… Now! He turned spread-eagled again and shunted a large amount of chakra from his arms, legs and chest, stopping them just before hitting the ground, Naruto paused for a moment before ever so gracefully falling the last foot, hitting the earth face first.

"Naruto! Are you alright?!" he shakily raised his right thumb – I'm okay. She helped him to his feet before he dragged her down, them both lying against the trunk of a tree. By a lucky twist of fate she laid her head on his shoulder, his arm around her.

"Naruto? How did you do that? Gliding, I mean."

"Gliding? I did that the same way I lost my eyes."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" he shook his head,

"It's fine, besides, you told me about your past. It was only two weeks into my training, Kargoth came to see what I was doing, I was chakra jumping – it was only fifty metres, not nearly as high as I took you – and I wanted to show him another way I could manipulate chakra. I asked him to throw a kunai at me; I caught it, spun it and shot it back at him, like this." He placed a pebble into his right hand and held it in front of her; he vented chakra from his palm to lift it up, raised his hand into a claw and began to spin it in all different directions.

"Then I got cocky, I asked him to throw three at me simultaneously, one at each hand and one at me chest. I stopped the two in my hands easily enough, but I vented chakra from _all_ of my chest, not just where it was needed… I was only able to release a small amount of the chakra before it imploded on me. I came to a few hours later, blind. Kargoth left a few days later." She turned around and traced where his eyes would be on his bandages.

"But… how can you see now?" Naruto sighed once again, this time in resignation.

"You've told me about yourself… the reason I was kicked out of my village, the reason they always tried to kill me, is because I have a demon inside of me." Before he could continue she gasped.

"They tried to murder you? But you were just a child! They're the demons! And you said it yourself: you have a demon _inside_ of you, you're not the demon." Naruto actually cried in happiness, she didn't hate him, unfortunately…

"Naruto! You're bleeding!" he brushed her hands aside.

"I should probably explain fully before you do anything. The Leaf village was nearly destroyed by the Nine-Tailed Fox, and on the night I was born it was sealed into me – it was made of pure chakra, and so they couldn't kill it. They would shun me wherever I go, and if I even looked at people they would attack me… try and kill me on my birthday. But on one particular night I heard music, Kargoth actually, they found me outside the bar and caught me, took me into this here forest and crucified me. Were it not for Kargoth I would have probably died there, the demon can heal most wounds but some needed to be tended to by outside forces. As for how I can see now, as soon as I came to the Fox severed all nerve connections going to my eyes… I don't want to explain to you what it looked like, be happy I have the bandages on. A while after Kargoth left, the Nine-Tails gave me an extremely weak version of his demonic witchsight, I can't stay in sunlight for long periods of time, but I can see on a microscopic level if I choose, and in the dark. He's currently making me new eyes – don't ask me how." She looked at him in a different light now, her problems paled in comparison to his!

"But… how come your right…eye… is bleeding?" Naruto wiped away the blood trail and explained:

"For a long time all the demon wanted me to do was kill, maim and burn… he did a lot of things to my mind, it put me under a lot of mental stress. I could usually ignore it on one level or another, but this one time… the pressure was so great _in_ my mind that it began damaging my brain; blood began pushing behind my right eye… long story short: every time I cry, one eye cries blood – the Fox was able to remove the haemorrhage, but he couldn't – or wouldn't – repair my tear ducts." Tayuya actually cried at the amount of bad things that happened to Naruto – and he was letting her stay with him after all that!

"Hey… come on, why are you crying?" she looked up at him and cried even more at his sincerity.

"It's just *sob* you've gone through *sob* all that *sob* and im acting like I've had it tough." He smiled sadly at her and wiped the tears from her face.

"Tayuya, don't even think for a second that you haven't had it tough – everyone you know and love was taken from you, you have had it worse than me… I never really had any family, it was just me from day one – and the Fox, you're probably thinking that that makes it worse, no, I never knew family to be sad at having them taken away." She stopped crying and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her jumper.

"We need to get you some new clothes, Tayuya. How long were you wandering for?" She looked at him sheepishly.

"Around… five months or so?" Naruto was shocked – five months!

"How did you survive for five months by yourself?" (Conveniently forgetting that that's how he's been living.)

"Hey, don't forget that I'm a ninja too you know." He gave her the point and helped her stand up, beginning the long walk back hand-in-hand – much to Naruto's enjoyment.

When they arrived back at the tent-site, Naruto created a single shadow clone.

"Alright, I need you to go into the village and pick up some clothes for Tayuya, but get in and out as fast as possible because if an ANBU sees you but does not detect you… well let's hope you dispel." The clone nodded and henged into a tall, serious looking but handsome samurai who shunshined inside of Konoha.

"Okay, so what do we have here?" Tayuya opened the package to find all manner of clothing: there were pants, short, long sleeve tops, short sleeve tops, bikini tops, and items that made her go bright pink.

"NARUTO YOU PERVERT!" She was holding up a _very _revealing bikini bottom, he quickly backed up and out of the tent.

"Hey, Tayuya, calm down – it was the clone's idea not mine!"

"You idiot! They're your clones!" Were it not for the fact that Naruto could chakra jump – he would have not made it out of there alive.

Naruto returned half hour later with the memories of some clones – how else was Tayuya going to release her anger? – And landed in front of the tent.

"Hey Tayuya… can I come in? I'm sorry about before."

"J-Just a minute!... you're forgiven… (that goes there)…I'm just getting dressed!... (that should do it) come in." Naruto was gobsmacked to say the least: having gotten lost of the baggy scrounged up clothes she looked less like a little girl and more like a woman, Naruto remembered her age, and without the old clothes he noticed her height – she was as tall as Naruto.

"Woah…Tayuya." He had a pair of black ninja shoes on, blood red pants that cut off above the knee and to continue that patter of black-red, she had a red top on that finished halfway down her chest, but had black bandages continuing the rest of the way **(AN: kind of like Ino's)** she topped it all off with some knuckle gloves.

"Don't look at me like that… it's embarrassing." She turned her head shyly as her cheeks were turning pink. Naruto felt the heat rising in his own as he replied.

"You look… wow, ahem. It's ah, really good, yeah." Convinced that she didn't look bad, Tayuya let out a sigh of relief.

"I'm glad… so what do you want to do now?" Tayuya smoothed out part of her sleeping bag and motioned him to sit down.

"Well, usually in the late afternoon id either train with Number One or go through Kargoth's seal boxes." She looked at him confused:

"Seal boxes?"

"Yeah, when he left – and after I could see – I found a box on the table, it had a note inside as well as a seal – you _do_ know what seals are, right?" She shook her head.

"Nope, well, I do – but probably not in the same sense that you are." Naruto looked around for a piece of parchment and an ink set.

"The art of sealing is an advanced one, and not many people can do it. It's about creating a seal – like a design – in the right order with the correct incantations on it, you channel chakra through it and it goes from some ink to something completely different, like an exploding tag or sealing scrolls." He showed her what he meant by creating a miniature sealing scroll and sealing a kunai within it.

"Wow! Where did it go?" Naruto shrugged his shoulders,

"No one's entirely sure… the strength of the seal determines how much you can store, the general consensus is that it goes into its own alternate chakra dimension – and don't ask me how. The reason why I need to be a good sealer is because all over a Dread Minstrels body is sealing tattoo's, one hundred to be precise; for the one hundred instruments a Dread Minstrel must master before taking up his (or her) mantle." Tayuya was amazed at what he was taught,

"That's what he taught you?" Naruto looked at her confused,

"Yeah… why?" she giggled at him behind a hand.

"Dread Minstrels only ever master _one _instrument – I was going to learn the flute… I _am_ going to master the flute. How could someone _master_ a hundred instruments in their lifetime?" Naruto took her question seriously though.

"With practice of course… Kargoth mastered the one hundred and was proficient in over a thousand, I've mastered the violin, harp and the organ – man that takes me back – and I'm proficient in eighty or so, some better than others." She looked at him amazed – he's _mastered _instruments?! Three, by age nine!

"That's… that can't be possible, the only person I know of who _mastered _one hundred… was the first Dread Minstrel… but people often spoke that he was more than a man… none of his apprentices could get anywhere near his level."

"Maybe… is Kargoth the first Minstrel?" Tayuya shook her head,

"It's not possible, he had a shrine in the Keepers sanctuary that held his bones, and he died in battle before there were even ninja."

"Well, I think I might take a page from the Keepers book and stick with the one's the I want to be good at, the violin, harp, ocarina and organ – at least I've already got the violin mastered." Tayuya still found it difficult to believe that he had mastered an instrument; especially at his age.

"If you've mastered the violin… do you have the seal on you?" Naruto smiled.

"Yep, one for the violin, one for the bow – I'll show you." Naruto removed his shirt to expose his muscled chest and abs. on his left shoulder was a small circle with the kanji for bow and on his right shoulder was the same, only the kanji said 'violin'.

"Naruto… can you please put your shirt back on." She had turned away and was blushing up a storm, although Naruto being Naruto he couldn't see that.

"Yeah, sure. Well, now that I'm going to be skipping a lot of instruments, I can skip through a lot of these seal boxes." Naruto had noticed a pattern since he had been opening seal boxes about the ninja arts; he would open two boxes about music and instruments for every one he opened that was about being a ninja. He opened the next two seal boxes, checked that there was no useful information by the spines of the books, and sealed everything that was useless into a small seal box that he kept in the corner of the room, usually for when he actually finished a whole seal box. He began reading through a book about military strategies when he saw Tayuya standing uncomfortably.

"Oh! Right, um… what would you like to do?" She sat down and looked a little uncomfortable.

"Well, I don't want to disrupt your learning… but, I wouldn't mind learning some more about, you." Naruto closed his book and put it to the side.

"Me? What's there to know?"

And so their lives went on by like that; of a morning they would both train, either together or also accompanied by Number One, by midday they would join in with the clone groups expanding their skills – or learning new ones in Tayuya's case – in the evening they would go through Kargoth's books, learning more about his motives and life (but more often than not finding nothing of importance) and at night they would walk, sometimes glide, and enjoy each other's company.

Another three years went by, they were both twelve and unknowingly in love. Btu all good things must pass, they were in the tent and were listening to Kargoth's gramophone, listening to some vinyls, the song changed;

_Click!_

It started with a loud trumpet before going into a quieter, somewhat slow dance. Naruto had a quick and impulsive idea: "Hey Tayuya, wanna dance? If you don't want to-" she smiled at him,

"No, I'll dance." He brazenly put a hand by her waist, his left hand holding her right, and they slowly moved from one foot to another, around and around.

_How lucky can one guy be?_

_I kissed her and, she kissed me._

_Like the fella once said:_

_Ain't that a kick in the head._

_The room was completely black,_

_I hugged her and, she hugged back._

_Like the sailor said quote:_

_'Ain't that a hole in a boat.'_

_My head keeps, spinning,_

_I go to sleep and keep, grinnin'_

_If this is just the be-ginin',_

_My life, is gonna be, be-youtiful._

_I've sunshine enough to spread,_

_It's just like the fella said:_

_'Tell me quick, ain't love a kick, in the head'_

_Like the fella once said:_

_'Ain't that a kick in the head'_

_Like the sailor said quote:_

_'Ain't that a hole in a boat.'_

_My head keeps, spinning,_

_I go to sleep and keep, grinnin'_

_If this is just the be-ginin',_

_My life, is gonna be, be-youtiful._

_She's tellin me, we'll be wed,_

_She's picked out a king sized-bed,_

_I couldn't feel, any better,_

_Or I'd be sad._

_Tell me quick!_

_Oh ain't love a kick!_

_Tell me quick, _

_Ain't love a kick, in the head!_

They were both blushing by the time the song ended, but neither let go.

"Naruto? I wouldn't mind… if we stayed like this, together…. With you, I mean."

"I agree Tayuya… in fact, I... I…"

"Yes?"

"I… it's nothing… it can wait till morning…" Tayuya wanted to know what he wanted to say, and hopefully say the same thing back, but didn't want to let him go.

"Lord Hokage? There is a group of people who wish to see you."

"Send them in." The gruff reply came from an ageing man with a pipe between his teeth, he was Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third Hokage of the Leaf village, and his patience was running out. Long ago, due to his extensive knowledge of jutsu, he was given the nickname 'Professor of Shinobi', along with his knowledge, came extreme patience, but he was becoming harder and harder to deal with.

_Where is that damned demon!? I have been looking for the little monster for the past seven years, and nothing!_

"Greetings, Lord Hokage-" Hiruzen sized them up, there were four of them, three were muscular, the four was a fat merchant, he could tell just by looking at them that they would sell their own mothers for a grape, sell their sisters into slavery for a few ryo and do _anything_ if paid the right price – his kind of people.

"Cut the crap and get to the chase." He also knew when to read between the lines. The speaker let a large 'friendly' smile spread across his face.

"But of course! My colleagues and I represent a large consortium of wealthy bankers, and we would be willing to pay _handsomely_ if we could use your services in locating an individual who we believe is hiding in one of you forests." The Hokage harrumphed at them,

"Judging by your appearances, the person is not a noble, nor a ninja – a slave whore gone missing?" He antagonised, knowing that they could do nothing without his permission; the fat man walked forwards and placed his hands on the Hokage's desk.

"Listen here you old coot, the person we are looking for could mean the downfall of civilization as we know it; now, they have been on the run for several years and all signs point towards your forests, but she is you and so would have needed help. Have any of your men been acting strangely for a while? Or has anyone mysteriously adopted anyone?" The Hokage looked at the merchant in front of him and in one swift motion backhanded him, hard enough to break his jaw.

"It is unwise to insult your host, let alone the Hokage…. Hmm, how long has this girl been missing?" _It's not possible… If he has been hiding in the forest this whole time I'll kill Danzo's ROOT myself… it's highly unlikely, but if there's even a chance…_

Seeing that their leader was unconscious, one of the brutes hesitantly replied:

"Approximately three and a half years, Lord Hokage." _The years don't match up, but no one else could be doing it, I make sure that the ROOT ANBU check the village every three nights… _the Hokage's face split into a grin, showing off yellow teeth.

"Why gentlemen, I think we can reach an accord."

"Yes!" Naruto said excitedly under his breath, Tayuya walked over to him.

"What is it?" he moved so she could see an exquisitely detailed violin and a letter, at the same time feeling the last seal burn off of his spine.

"This was the last seal box, hear this:

_Naruto, if you have gotten this far it means that you have completed your training, congratulations. But you would also know that you have only mastered ninety-eight instruments, you are not yet a Dread Minstrel – and while you may be strong, you are not yet as strong as I promised, strong enough to topple a Hokage, but you are strong enough to be bestowed the title of Apprentice Dread Minstrel - I know it's a mouthful so just call yourself a Dread Minstrel! The violin that accompanies this letter is called 'Dirge', and has a host of seals on it – I'll let you figure it out. If you wish to complete your apprenticeship, do great feats, if I hear of the Dread Minstrel of Konoha, I'll find you._

_One last thing, I believe that you have the right to know that I was grooming you to be the fourth Dread Minstrel, so when you finish your apprenticeship, it would do me great honour to be the first to address you as Kinroan, the Fourth._

_Good luck in all your endeavours,_

_Rykone the Fifth._

"The bastard has no right to call himself that! He will never be Rykone!" Tayuya shouted this at the paper, but Naruto felt that some of it was directed at himself as well.

"What do you mean?" She quickly brushed a tear away from her eyes.

"My father was the Fifth Dread Minstrel, Rykone. They all have honorary titles when they are granted the name 'Dread Minstrel', there is Rykone, the Fifth and strongest of them all, then Kinroan, Kinwaith, Kinzar and finally Kinrye the First."

**_Boy, I still cannot comprehend that you are around that creature of a female, let alone continuing training to become one. Finishing, I should say, congratulations, I have finished creating a human version of my witchsight, you have eyes again. Now to uphold your end of the deal, place your hands over the violin, I will do the rest. _**Naruto felt the Fox mocking him, but daren't rebuke him considering the consequences. He placed his hands over the violin and red chakra could be seen flowing out of them.

"Naruto? What's happening?" Tayuya asked,

"The Fox and I made a deal… I'm not sure what will happen, so you might want to stand back." She complied but was worried at what might happen to him. The violin and bow looked no different save a red tinge around them, Naruto was confused for a moment, and then the two began to levitate! They spun in the air until they were about six metres away, before shooting into Naruto's chest, throwing him out the tent.

"NARUTO!" She ran out the tent and was in tears, crying next to his motionless body.

"Tayuya… please don't cry... what did I tell you last time?" she looked up from his chest to find him smiling at her, he then lifted up his shirt.

"Damn… that looks awesome." On his left shoulder, instead of being the circle and 'bow' kanji, was a large red fox claw, and on his right shoulder was an almighty fox that ran partway down his chest. **_Draw them boy._** Naruto complied and placed chakra into the two seals, pulling them from his body. They both gasped in awe, the bow was a deep ebon black that had, what looked like a large fang on its topside, easily sharp enough to cut through steel. The violin had turned completely demonic: instead of a nutty brown, it was bone white (complete with fractures and chips), the end of the violin was an upturned claw – but with nine sharp talons. He could feel them both thrumming with power, but something else… it was as though they cried out for blood and slaughter, he could feel _evil_ seeping from it – this weapon would need to be used cautiously.

"They're both evil… and beautiful at the same time. Are you going to be okay Naruto?" Naruto's smile got even wider.

"Why I'm better than okay Tayuya, do you know why?" she shook her head, confused. Naruto unfastened his bandages until he was only holing them in front of his face.

"Because today is the day I get to look upon you with my real eyes." He let the bandages drop, exposing his eyes to her, and looking at her truly for the first time in his life.

"Naruto… they're…. they're _beautiful_."

"Hey!" he said defensively,

"Aren't I supposed to tell _you_ that? But, you do look beautiful Tayuya, and I can say that with absolute certainty." She blushed immensely and they walked back to the tent, she picked up his mirror so he could see his eyes, and damn were they cool! They were two silver orbs that were, well, they were almost _glowing_, and were unmarred by pupil, sclera or iris – it was just silver!

"Damn… the Fox did a good job. Speaking of…" he felt his stomach and didn't feel that familiar sensation. **_The reason it feels different Boy, is because nearly all of my power has left you – eighty percent of me is in this damn violin. I refuse to stand by and watch you kill yourself by staying with that girl! I have now sealed most of my being into the violin, so that if you die, the rest of my power will return and I can break out. _**_But… I thought the Nine-Tails was too strong to be sealed into an object, how is this possible? __**Fool! I can't be **_**forcefully****_ binded, but of my own free will, yes, it also helps that not all of my power is in said object. _**

"Is something wrong Naruto?" Naruto nodded,

"In a sense, as it happens, the Fox has pretty much abandoned me; he's in the violin now." Tayuya nodded, she then seemed to be indecisive about something before standing closer to Naruto.

"Naruto, I have to know… what do you feel to-" Naruto's eyes widened, but for the wrong reason. He threw Tayuya to the ground and threw up his chakra shield.

"Tayuya! Stay down!"

Reverse time skip – ten minutes ago.

After settling on a price, the Hokage immediately assembled the ROOT ANBU and Danzo, he would personally lead the hunt for the demon.

"Attention! We don't know the position of the target, but we know that it is one of the forests, Danzo and ROOT groups one through five will sweep-" Sarutobi was pleasantly interrupted by a chakra signature that he had long thought had disappeared – and it was coming from the Forest of Death. A rictus grin split his face.

"You are all dismissed, the Firebrands and Danzo are to remain behind." Twelve people remained, Sarutobi, Danzo and the ten Firebrands. The Firebrands were the ten most destructive, fire chakra aligned, not to mention unhinged ninja in the Fire Nation, no civilian had ever heard of them, but amongst the ninja circles – they were legendary.

"Training grounds 44, immediately!" As one, the group shunshined to the Forest of Death, the Hokage pointed to it.

"The target is approximately one kilometre in… see this forest? I feel that we need to do a little… _cleaning_." The ten ROOT agents nodded and spread out in an arc that would obliterate everything in the first kilometre – if they were given the word.

"Hiruzen, isn't this a little risky?"

"Of course it is – to the girl with him, remember that he holds the Kyuubi, this won't keep him down for long. Firebrands! Turn up the heat!"

Unfortunately, the word _was_ given, and everything in the first kilometre _was_ obliterated – well, almost everything.

Not having any real experience against enemy ninja or their jutsu, Naruto was completely taken aback by the sheer phenomenal power behind their fire barrage. The strength of the flames was so great that it suck up most of the oxygen in the immediate atmosphere, causing Tayuya to have trouble breathing and forcing Naruto to his knees.

"N-Nar…uto…ple…ase…hel…p…me." Naruto looked to Tayuya, she was on the ground, coughing severely due to lack of oxygen – it was less serious for him because of the residual strength left over from the Fox.

"Shit Tayuya! Hang on!" He dropped his chakra shield and picked her up, looking for refuge before the next volley began. Unfortunately he didn't count on the skill of the Firebrands, a fireball slammed into his back, catapulting him and Tayuya apart.

The shock wore off after some time; he stood up only to see Tayuya's prone body staring up at him from twenty metres away.

"…ruto…don't…eve…m…lone…" Naruto was having difficulty hearing her above the crackling flames and roaring fireballs, but he could read her lips perfectly.

"Tayuya! You won't be alone! I promised, remember? I'll save you and-" Sadly, because he was shouting, Naruto wasn't reading her lips, so he didn't hear her say: 'look out', and so his words were cut off because of the two hundred year old oak that fell on his body.

"All units, apprehend the target, its chakra signal has weakened." Hiruzen shunshined with Danzo and arrived to meet the Firebrands burning away the gigantic tree.

"Lord Hokage, the target has been apprehended." Danzo nodded to the ROOT ninja and they shunshined away, leaving the two men with some privacy.

"After all these years, we finally have the demon back in our hands. You've changed quite a bit little ant, what _have_ you been up to?"

"All that matters now is that we have it, take him back to your cells, the super-max one would be best." Danzo nodded and shunshined back to ROOT HQ, the Hokage looked at the smoking surrounds one last time before shunshining back to his office.

A pale, gaunt man was jumping through the trees on his way to the Village Hidden in the Leaves for some 'business', of course, she might call it 'torture', when he came across a burnt forest.

"Oh, her house had been burnt down, poor girl." A passer-by may have mistaken his tone for sincerity, but anyone who knew the man would know what he meant. He walked through the forest, breathing in the death and decay with a sense of happiness, when he heard a familiar sound – whimpering. The girl was severely burnt and shaking, not from cold or fear, but from… _withdrawal?_ The man was interested by her and so stooped down.

"Are you alright, little girl?" she looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

"You…ha…ve…to…help…me." The man smiled pure evil, but to the girl it looked like kindness.

"Why should I help you?" He saw a small glint in her eyes, _what have we here?_ He thought.

"It…hurts….and…the…y…took…him…fr…om…me, ki…lled…him" _These wounds would have killed any normal person, she is a strong one indeed… she wants revenge, does she? Well I suppose I should do my good deed for the day…_

"Of course I'll help you little one, what's your name?" he asked, as he gently lifted her from the ashes.

"Ta…yuya."

"You'll be alright now, Tayuya, I'll take care of you." _I have been meaning to get a new vessel… but she will need to age for a few years longer._

"Wh…at's…your…name?" she croaked the words out, he looked down at her.

"My name? Why it's Orochimaru."

_Drip…drip…drip…_

**_Wake up Boy…_** Naruto was in his mindscape, he was floating on a sea of blood.

**_So what if she's dead, you're better off without her!_**Naruto lay a broken and shattered boy… he finally had it all, he had someone who cared for him, someone he cared for… but above all, he _felt_… and it was gone. He stared blankly out into the sky… maybe he'll drown soon… maybe.

**_FOOLISH BOY! SHES JUST A GIRL! SHE IS OF NO CONSEQUENCE TO YOU!_** The sky turned black and blood rained down on him, the sea of blood grew uneasy and waves crashed against his body, blood gushed into his mouth and began filling his lungs.

**_GET! UP! NOW!_**

_Why?_ Naruto's answer was so quiet that the Fox barely heard it.

**_BECAUSE YOU ARE GOING TO DIE! _**

_…I'll die?... I can see her again…I'll die then._ The Fox let out an almighty roar, a great thundering cracked the sky and a red lightning bolt hit Naruto.

**_FOOL! LIVE, SO YOU MAY AVENGE THE DAMNED GIRL!_** Old memories and emotions slowly ebbed into Naruto's mind:

_…burn…_

_…kill…_

_Fire…_

_Anger…_

_Hate_

_VENGEANCE! _It was as though the Fox was coursing through Naruto's veins, he heard a parting voice in his head:

**_I'll do this no more, Boy… this is the last time that I will pluck you from the grasp of death, if you wish to avenge the girl then those who did this must burn… goodbye._**

Naruto's used his demon sight to see where he was, so as not to reveal he was awake. The first thing he saw was the Old Man, an evil grin split Naruto's face.

"Hello Sarutobi… I've missed you, you know."_Something is wrong with this kid, that smile is giving me the chills, and how did he know I was here?_

"I'm sorry to say I haven't missed you… actually, no I'm not. You want to know something funny though? For all those, long, sad years where you haven't been with us – a few times there I thought you were actually dead, and yet a moment ago… you actually were. Whenever I thought you were dead, I always had one thought that kept my spirits up; do you know what that was? No? what I did, was think of all the pain and suffering that you put me through, double it, and then exact that pain on you – I couldn't have such a valuable investment going to waste now could I? Oh, how sad – you don't even know what I'm talking about." Sarutobi chuckle evilly to himself, Naruto joined in his laughter.

"If you are talking about the Fox, then I'm sad to say that he is gone. Don't believe me? Check yourself." The old man laughed at him.

"I don't know how you know about the demon – but I assure you that it is not gone, I think we would know if a tailed beast was on the loose… you're not… trying to insult me, are you? Because I get _angry_ when people insult me." Upon saying 'angry' the Hokage placed a red hot poker onto Naruto's side, his skin sizzled and burnt but all Naruto focused on was the burning revenge he would exact on them all.

"Oh-ho, that tickles… but I'm being serious Sarutobi, channel chakra through me, I guarantee the Fox is gone." A shadow of fear and doubt played across Sarutobi's face; fear, because Naruto didn't even register the poker, and doubt, because Naruto was just too cocky about it.

"Well, if you insist, **Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!**" He stood back and shot four baseball sized fireballs at Naruto, who kept smiling.

"Well, do _you_ see anything? Because I sure don't." The Hokage looked closely at Naruto's stomach, and when he couldn't see the chakra-ink lines he held in a shout of anger, he stood back up.

"I see, Raven, I leave him in your hands." The Hokage nodded to the ANBU member who stood in the corner and left, barring the metre-thick steel door, sealing Naruto in with his torturer.

"Well well well, we meet again little angel, remember me?" the ANBU removed his mask to reveal the mob leader from years ago.

"Ah yes, goodbye." A look of confusion came across his face which was quickly wiped away by death; Naruto snapped his right leg out, and instead of kicking him he vented an extreme amount of chakra from his shin, blowing the ANBU into the steel wall and caving in his head.

Naruto surveyed his surroundings, the room he was in was a steel box really, four thick walls, a two inch drainage hole in the centre of the slightly-slanted floor for removing blood from the room, but Naruto knew that it was more often than not clogged with teeth and strips of skin. The only air came from the door, which was opened every two hours to change the ANBU inside. Naruto was chained up by his wrists, suspended a metre from the floor, he guessed that he would be in for a long visit.

**_Boy… why did you not kill the Hokage?_**

_I'm surprised that you can even make this mental connection – I thought you only left your regeneration behind, albeit a weaker version of it._

**_We're both surprised… the connection is very weak, I doubt that unless you are physically holding the violin we will not be able to communicate – although I consider that an overall blessing._**

_Me too, but the reason I didn't kill the Hokage was because he would have just died… I want to him to see his little empire crumbled to dust around him, and apart form by surprise in here I doubt I could kill him; without you I am severely weakened, but I will grow much stronger, I will also finish training with Kargoth, although I suspect that Sarutobi won't let me leave the village that easy…_

**_Speaking of… why haven't you escaped? You are easily strong enough to do that, or would you like for me to do it for you?_**The Fox (in violin form) mocked him further by exiting his chest, floating around before returning.

_Very funny, but no – I need Sarutobi to _let_ me out, I still plan on becoming a ninja, although if the mob leader became an ANBU, I feel that my task will become much easier._ Whether the Fox wanted to answer or not, he didn't and Naruto suspected that their mental link was finally severed.

Viper was walking his beat of the secret ROOT prison and it was about time to change over with Raven. He opened the door and got a surprise, the demon boy was just hanging there, _not _begin tortured, he looked around for Raven and saw him dead in the corner, he looked back at the brat who just shrugged his shoulders.

_I must inform Lord Danzo._ He pulled the door to and shunshined into the Hokage's office.

"…o what should we do about this situation?" Viper cleared his throat.

"Excuse me Lords, we have a… situation." The Hokage stood up immediately and slammed his hands on the table.

"Is it the prisoner? What's happened?"

"The prisoner has killed Raven, but-"

"But what boy?! Spit it out has he escaped!?

"No, he's still here; it would be easier to explain if you would come with me." They shunshined outside the cell and Viper pulled the door open. Naruto looked up and smiled at them.

"Sarutobi! The man of the hour! Danzo! My, have you lost weight?" Sarutobi narrowed his eyes at Naruto, Danzo just moved around the Hokage and punched Naruto in the ribs – but he showed no sign of pain.

"Alright you little cretin, how did you kill that agent?" Naruto _really_ felt like antagonising the pair of them, but knew that though it would spite them, it would lessen his chances of getting out.

"Can I just point one thing out? Look up. See these chains? I can't do any jutsu, they're made of steel and they're heavy to boot – how would you kill him in my position?" Danzo backhanded Naruto and seethed, not actually finding any fault in his reasoning.

Hiruzen watched the situation with little interest, with the demon gone Naruto was pretty much useless to them, he knew that it would be difficult to kill the little rat – _difficult_, not _impossible_, - but had a feeling that he might have use of him in the future.

"Actually…" The Hokage pressed a nondescript brick in the wall and Naruto was lowered to the ground, he then unwrapped the chains. Naruto rubbed his wrists and looked with still-closed eyes at the Hokage.

"I would thank you, but we both know that you are thinking of something… so, ta. By the way, I'll be joining the ninja academy – do you acquiesce to that?" The Hokage thought for a moment then nodded.

"You may leave, Viper, take him back to his house – I will fill in the required forms." Viper placed a hand onto Naruto's shoulder and they shunshined away, Danzo turned to Sarutobi.

"Why did you let him go!? We had him right here, and the academy? You would let him become a ninja?" The Hokage motioned with his head to walk and he began talking on the way back to his office.

"We have a window of opportunity here, Danzo. While one of us could kill the brat – with time – we can turn him into our own pawn. We will increase the difficulty of his tests – not so that he can't pass, but so we can see his skill level, when he graduates – and I assure you he will, we shall give him the two worst passers and a jonin that we want to get rid of. We will then assign them with B-rank missions, then A, then S. It's a win-win situation for us: his team will die because of the difficulty, or we will have suicide missions completed… I am going to enjoy the coming years, what say you Danzo?"

"I think you're having all the fun!" They both laughed at the situation, but Danzo kept his thoughts to himself; _Hiruzen would be that cruel? I understand eliminating the boy, but Leaf ninja?_ Danzo had these thoughts because, although he was just as underhanded everything he did was for the betterment of Konoha, and even the most worthless ninja could be made better by putting them through the ROOT programs.

Naruto arrived out the front of his old apartment… well the name only _half_ suited the building: it sure was old, but it looked like a bomb had hit it.

"Well…I'm not sure what to say actually, I do prefer the tent…" As he walked in the door he made a quick survey of the area: every window was broken, there were signs of burns on the outer walls, mould was growing on the ceiling and on the clothes piles, rats scurried from under his mattress when kicked.

"Final prognosis? Deep shit." He made ten shadow clones and sent them to work fixing up the house, he then henged himself into Byakuya; whenever he had to do a run into the village (rarely) he would always henge into this guy, he got the idea from reading a book about Shinigami, it proposed that Shinigami were all group of people, rather than a single demigod.

'Byakuya' shunshined into an alleyway in the commercial district and walked around, looking for a hardware store. Half hour later he had a scroll that was full of timber, nails, a few hammers and some panes of carefully packed glass.

"Tools and equipment – check, where to next? I suppose I should get some food." He wandered around the market for two hours, getting an abundant supply of meats, fruit and vegetables so that he wouldn't have to do a supply run for a few months yet.

"Grub – check, suppose I should get some clothes." Naruto found the tailor that he had often shopped at and greeted the man behind the counter.

**(AN: this part will seem a ****_bit_**** racey, I don't know why, but it just popped into my head – I want to apologise to any who take offence in advance.)**

"Ah mista Byakya, you come for clothes? I help you! You good customer, pay big money! You shop for brudda or sista?" Naruto smiled politely at the foreign tailor, from the first time he walked into the shop he seemed to click with the guy – probably because he felt like an outsider in a foreign city too.

"Hello Mr. Wing, I will be needing a bit of help, yes." Mr. Wing smiled again at Byakuya and helped him with his shopping. He was nearly finished collecting the clothes when it dawned on him:

"These mesuments! You shopping for brother! I must meet family some time! Tell me, how is sista?" Byakuya let a tear run down his face and smiled sadly.

"No… my sister died recently." Mr. Wing put on a sad face and hugged Byakuya tightly, which was rather amusing because Mr. Wing's head only came halfway up Byakuya's chest.

"Me so solly… If you want to, we can talk for long time." Mr. Wing pulled away from Byakuya who shook his head.

"It's fine, thank you. But speaking of my sister, you know how her favourite colour was that red? I was wondering if I could get some cloth that colour." Mr. Wing nodded sagely.

"Yes-yes, red like blood, it suit many women, I sure that it suited sista. Tell me, you like any women? Get down for long time! Ha ha!" Byakuya smiled sadly and nodded.

"Yes… but she also died recently, she and my sister were in an accident together." The sadness of it brought a tear to Mr. Wing's old face; he grabbed one of Byakuya's hands and rubbed it with both of his.

"You have bad run with women… I solly twice over… but Mr. Wing have good deal for old friend – these are on house!" Naruto shook his head.

"I can't do that to you Mr. Wing, these cost a lot of money-" Mr. Wing shook his head.

"And caught lot of grief, now get out of shop before I change mind." Byakuya saw what he was getting at and so nodded.

"Thank you, Mr. Wing, I'll be sure to pay double next time."

"No-no, these on house, you pay normal next time! Ah what I saying, you give me extra money anyway." He shook his head ruefully in a joking manner.

"Ha ha, till next time Mr. Wing." Mr. Wing smiled at him and waved.

"Goodbye! See you next time!"

**(AN: well, that was a lot more racist than planned – I really do apologise to anyone of oriental descent reading this, I'm not usually racist… I just wanted to add it for some reason, and I've thought of one too! You'll find out in a few chapters.)**

After picking up a few more essentials Naruto arrived back at his place and created a new two-dozen clones. After they unpacked everything that he brought he began issuing orders:

"Alright, you ten start putting the new walls in place; you three are going to be in charge of the windows. You five! I want hardening seals on every pane of glass and plank, hop to it! Okay, what to do with you six… I want you to henge into ANBU and scout out the whole village, I've seen lots of new buildings constructed that weren't there before, I've also seen abandoned lots – I want to know the whole village within the next six hours – dismissed!"

_Now what the hell do I do?_ One of the saddest things about the fire – apart from the obvious – was that he lost not only his six commanders, but his gramophone and vinyls – not to mention all of Kargoth's journals.

"Well first thing's first, I want to actually open my eyes." Ever since Naruto had been captured he had not opened his eyes, now that he was 'free', there was no reason to keep them hidden, but Naruto felt that he should keep them concealed – if only for a while longer. This was the reason why he brought the blood-red cloth; he tore part of it off and wrapped it around his eyes a few times, tying it off at the back of his head. Being demonically powered witchsight, he could see perfectly fine through the cloth, but the first thing he saw was the rest of the loth in his hands. _This colour… the same as Tayuya's hair… the same as her blood._ That same moment played over and over again in his head:

_Tayuya's prone body looking up at him, _

_"…ruto…don't…eve…m…lone…" Naruto was having difficulty hearing her above the crackling flames and roaring fireballs, but he could read her lips perfectly._

_"Tayuya! You won't be alone! I promised, remember?_

_You won't be alone! I promised, remember?_

_You won't be alone! I promised, remember?_

_I promised, remember?_

_"Promise me Naruto! Promise me that you won't leave me alone!"_

_"Of course Tayuya, I promise that I'll never leave you: I'll be with you, forever, always and after."_

Tears streaked down Naruto's face as the memories brought up a feeling of perpetual sadness.

"I'm sorry *sob* Tayuya… I broke my promise *sob* *sob* I'm sorry!" His choked apology was heard by none save his clone, who were purposefully blocking out their leaders cries lest they crumple into the same state.

Naruto awoke form his nightmarish sleep a few hours later to find that his apartment was rebuilt with seal-lined walls and everything was put away. He made a small meal for his tea before crashing to sleep on his bed, one hundred percent exhausted from the emotions of cruelty, sadness, grief, sorrow and anger that happened that day.

The last months of the year drifted by for Naruto, each day he would wake up, eat breakfast, go into a forest and train – he couldn't bring himself to go back to Training Grounds 44 – eat lunch, train some more alongside an army of clones and usually cry himself to sleep, thinking about Tayuya. He found that he was less sad when he was expressing himself through music, and with the help of a few clones to act as the rest of the band, he did just that most afternoons.

_Seek me,_

_Call me,_

_I'll be waiting,_

_Seek Me,_

_Call me,_

_I'll be waiting,_

_Yeah!_

_This dis-tance,_

_This dissolution,_

_I cling to memories,_

_While fal-ling_

_Sleep brings re-lease_

_In the hope of a new day._

_Waking the misery_

_Of being without you!_

_Surrender!_

_I give in!_

_Another moment!_

_Yes!_

_Another et-er-ni-ty!_

_Seek me,_

_For comfort._

_Call me,_

_For solace._

_I'll be wait-ing_

_For the of my, _

_Bro-ken heart_

_Seek me,_

_Completion._

_Call me,_

_I'll be waiting,_

_For the end of my,_

_Bro-ken heart._

_You know me,_

_You know me all too well,_

_My only desire,_

_To bridge on division!_

_And sorrow!_

_I speak your name!_

_Let my voice mirrors!_

_Mirrors like darkness! _

_Seek me,_

_For comfort, _

_Call me,_

_For solace._

_I'll be wait-ing_

_For the of my, _

_Bro-ken heart_

_Seek me,_

_Completion._

_Call me,_

_I'll be waiting,_

_For the end of my,_

_Bro-ken heart._

_Am i!_

_Brea-thing!_

_My strength!_

_Fails me!_

_Your picture!_

_Lay buried!_

_Mirroring yeah!_

_For comfort…_

_For solace…_

_Seek me,_

_For comfort,_

_Call me,_

_For solace,_

_I'll be wait-ing,_

_For the end of my bro-ken heart!_

Naruto dispelled his clones and let silence reign… so peaceful… so quiet… so _alone._

_You won't be alone! I promised, remember? _Naruto fell to the ground and cried under his cloth, he clutched his heart.

"Why! *sob* why does it hurt so much!" he cried for what seemed like an eternity, pondering the question over and over again, when a dark part of him finally answered:

_Because they are alive where she is dead… they must burn… once they have burned, so can you… you will see her again._

From that day onwards, whenever he thought about Tayuya, he didn't crumple into a mess, he reflected on his memories with her in a sense of bitter-sweetness, stowed the feelings away before replacing them with ones of revenge, it all began with becoming a genin.

Naruto entered the classroom to see a few children talking or running around, he took in every detail of every person in the room in a single sweep of his eyes. He walked to the back of the room and took a seat in the corner, remembering the words Kargoth once told him:

_…so if you sit in a corner with two walls at your back, adjacent to the entry point – not opposite – you can see every individual who walks through that door while remaining inconspicuous yourself; it's great for bars, restaurants, public houses, pretty much anywhere where there's one entry point, two or more entry points is a different story, let me give you an example: this one time in the Land of Rice Paddies…_

The bell went and the rest of the class rushed in, eager to meet their new ninja classmates – and beat the teacher. A boy walked in that Naruto had seen around the village, he walked with an air one could only describe as 'jack-assery' and acted as though he were the Hokage, he was Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto was fortunate enough in never having to converse with the ungrateful puke. Today as it would seem, his fortune ran out; Sasuke took a seat on the other side of the room and in a middle row, but of course he looked around and saw Naruto, he pointed to him and stated:

"You, who are you, I've never seen you around the village, and I know everyone here." _Doesn't that cancel itself out?_

"Me? You want to know who I am?" he sneered at Naruto – but it somehow seemed natural, like a smile on a normal person.

"Yes, I will beat you all, and I want to at least know your names – I know everyone else's here; you should consider it an honour." Naruto couldn't help but messing with the stuck-up prick, he rubbed his chin.

"I see, I see… why is it an honour?" the question appeared to catch Sasuke off-guard, as he didn't reply for a few seconds.

"Because I am Uchiha! I am the elite, now tell me your name!" Naruto smiled evilly on the inside – _this is going to be easier than playing percussion!_

"Well, first of all, it's polite to say your name before asking for someone else's. Secondly, it you are elite, how come you don't already know my name?" Sasuke grew enraged at the unknown figure – how DARE he speak to an Uchiha like that! Sasuke leapt up from his chair and charged at Naruto, he only took one step before falling flat on his face – Naruto vented a beam of chakra at his feet.

"Look out there, elite should never trip over their own feet." Sasuke growled at Naruto, he was about to charge at him again when a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Don't do it Sasuke! He's not worth it!" The hand belonged to a girl wearing a red dress who had pink hair. _Why is she yelling? We're inside for-_

"Just ignore him; my mother told me about him, he's a monster!" Naruto was surprised – she literally brought the term 'can't hear myself think', to life.

"Hnnh. Don't touch me." He somehow instantly regained his composure and 'I'm a tough nut' attitude, enough so that he could brush her off completely and yet have her fawning over him the next second. Naruto was glad that he was brought up by Kargoth – if that scene was anything to go by, how would he have turned out?

The door opened and a tanned man walked in. he wore a nest that signified he was a chunin, his hair was tied into a spiky bun and he had a scar across his face.

"Good morning children, I've taught some of you before but for those that I haven't, I am Iruka Umino, but you will address me as 'Iruka-sensei'." Iruka began by calling the role, and received a shock when he neared the end:

"…Ino Yamanaka?"

"Present!"

"Okay, everyone's- huh? There seems to be a late entry, this-this can't be! Naruto Uzumaki!?" he looked around the room and Naruto smiled, exposing his sharp teeth.

"Present, Iruka-sensei." Iruka had to force himself not to shake; he cleared his throat and continued.

"Ahem, I see. Since today is our first lesson, it shall be an introduction…" The words rolled easily out of Iruka's mouth; it was the same speech he made every year for every class. _The Hokage told me that I would have a new student, but the demon!? He is supposed to be dead!_ Iruka hated the demon – he was the reason that Iruka had no parents; he was often one of the people who attacked Naruto as well. Over the years though, his hated subsided, only to be replaced with fear – they may have been able to hurt the demon in its infancy, but what happened when it aged?

Naruto paid attention for the whole class, though there was nothing that he didn't know. He also found that most children – along with Iruka – avoided him, a few of the clan kids sat with him or made small talk though he didn't care either way – one day he would burn them all in the fires of vengeance.

The year went by slowly but surely for Naruto, he would wake up and train with his clones, have breakfast and go to the academy, he would come home in the afternoon, keep his musical talents up to perfection – which was easy because he only had his violin, all his other instruments were destroyed in the fire. – have a late night training session with a few chakra-boosted clones, go to sleep, wake up the next day and repeat the cycle. Near the end of the year, Naruto confronted Iruka; sure, Naruto loved the fear that was exuded from him whenever Naruto was nearby, but he was just getting tired of it – so he sat him down and explained that he no longer carried the Nine-Tails anymore – well, it was more along the lines of: "For Christ sake! Can you even call yourself a man? I'm just a child, not a demon – I don't even _have_ the Fox anymore, fuck! Your cowardice pisses me off, man up already!" Luckily it was at the end of the class and so no one heard his outburst, and although Iruka was shaken by it he got the message, though he would quickly exit whenever it was just those two by themselves.

Iruka walked into his graduating academy class to see many things: Choji was munching _loudly_ on a bag of chips, the girls were _screaming_ over Sasuke, Kiba and Akamaru were _growling_ at each other.

_Why Kami, why? It's a FRIDAY – they're kids, shouldn't they be dying?_ It was too damn loud, and he should have _not_ gone drinking last night – _what _was_ the name of that sake place? I can't even remember…_

"QUIETEN DOWN EVERYONE! CHOJI! NO EATING IN MY CLASS! INO! SAKURA! SHION! YOKO! STOP FIGHTING OVER SASUKE! KIBA! STOP BARKING AT AKAMARU! SHIKAMARU! WAKE UP AND GET OFF THE TABLE!" _Well at least he was being quiet._

"That's better, why can't you all be more like Hinata?" Hinata was waiting patiently for Iruka to come in, not drawing any attention to herself, but now that he pointed her out, _everyone_ was staring at her, so she shrunk even further into her jumper.

"Never mind, actually. Anyway, as you all know today is exam day; first you will do a theoretical test, then we'll go outside to cover the physical aspects and after lunch we will return to the classroom to cover the ninjutsu aspects. Here are your tests; you have thirty minutes to complete it. Before you start I want you to remember one thing – whether you pass or fail, I'm proud of you all. When you receive your test you may begin – good luck." He began handing out the tests, giving Naruto his last.

"Naruto, your test. This came from the Hokage, too." Naruto looked at his test; it was in a yellow document envelope, as opposed to the stapled sheets that everyone else received. He opened it up to find that of the twelve pages, half were from a different, much harder test. _Probably ANBU, you sly old bastard Sarutobi._ Naruto knew that the level of skill shown by ANBU had slowly declined in the past decade or two, but the test was still very difficult – or at least it would have been if Naruto didn't have his unique upbringing – _thank you one again Kargoth, what you taught me will bring me one step closer to burning the Leaf._

Iruka collected their tests and led them outside to meet Mizuki waiting for them.

"The second part of the exam consists of two parts: one part tests your ability to throw shuriken and kunai, the second is a timed submission match against Mizuki-sensei."

They walked over to a field that had several targets of varying distance that were spread out in such a manner that each target was progressively more difficult than the last. Naruto watched each of the students' throws, but paid close attention to the clan children, knowing that whatever the Hokage had in store for him would lay with the children of ninja – probably to keep a close eye on him. Shino scored well, 9/10 with kunai and 8/10 for the shuriken, for a total of 17/20, Choji scored a middle of the range 15, Sakura scored a lowly 12, the eleventh kunai only just lodging in. Hinata scored a bare pass of 10, Kiba scored the same as Shino with 17, Shikamaru couldn't be bothered throwing them all and so scored a 13. Sasuke trick-shotted all of his bar the last, scoring an impressive 19/20, Ino was the same as Hinata, scoring a 10/20 pass. _That's strange… why didn't Hinata or Ino score higher? Ino is a clan heir, but you can put _some_ of her failing down to her weak upper body strength (due to extreme dieting), but Hinata is also a clan heir, although she does have failing confidence._

"Naruto, since you were a late entry on the role, you're last." Naruto picked up the kunai and shuriken that were handed to him by Mizuki, feeling that they were off weight. _Really Sarutobi? I thought you were a bit above this, guess not._ Naruto took into account where the imperfections on the tools were and threw them perfectly, scoring 20/20.

"Good work Naruto, alright everyone, it's time for your one on one bout against Mizuki-sensei. You have ten minutes, and this can be accomplished in two ways: you either survive for as long as possible before surrendering, or you make Mizuki surrender in the shortest time possible." Again, Naruto watched the clan children with more care: Shino got Mizuki to submit in 2:37 due to his beetles, Choji submitted at 7:08, Sakura submitted in 3: 41, Hinata just made it by submitting at three minutes flat, Kiba submitted at 8:15 – he was a good fighter but had no tactics, Shikamaru purposely forfeited at three minutes. Naruto watched the fight between Mizuki and Sasuke with interest: it looked to most that Sasuke fought savagely and got Mizuki to submit early on at one minute; but due to Naruto's witchsight and memory he replayed the fight in slow-motion – _I knew it, Mizuki let Sasuke get that arm bar… I knew the council gave Sasuke special treatment – but I didn't think they would go this far._

When Naruto stepped into the stick-drawn circle, Mizuki grinned ferally at him: he hated the demon with all of his being – and Naruto didn't know why. After going through the files in the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (which were guarded day and night mind you) he found that Iruka's parents died in the Kyuubi's attack and hence figured that was why he hated him, but Mizuki came up clean… maybe he was prejudiced against demons? Naruto chuckled at his own joke, but Mizuki thought it was at him.

"Something funny Naruto?" _'Cause I am going to enjoy pummelling you, demon._ Mizuki absolutely charged at Naruto, and everyone watching expected him (Naruto) to submit then and there. Naruto surprised them all: not only did he last the full ten minutes, but he did it without Mizuki landing a single blow on him!

Mizuki was puffing and panting at the effort he exerted – all in vain. He had his hands on his knees and his head down, he asked himself:

"Wh…what the fuck… are you?" Naruto heard him though and so leaned in and spoke softly, so that only Mizuki could hear.

"You never know… I might just be a demon." Before Mizuki could retaliate, Naruto was surprised by a clap that began with Iruka, oddly enough.

"Well done Naruto! Few people ever last the full ten minutes. Now everyone, we'll have lunch now and meet back in the classroom, dismissed." _You may congratulate now, hell, you could even try and break-bread with me, but no one will escape my revenge. _An old memory was dredged up when Naruto said that, one with Tayuya.

_"…I don't really like that Number Two though – he's too hard on the clones." Naruto raised an eyebrow at her,_

_"But they're just that – clones, and besides, they probably did something wrong."_

_"Naruto! Each clone, as soon as they are even minutely different from their primogenitor, they are their own  
person – you can tell from your number clones especially, they are all people, and all people should be given a chance; it's just sealing too, even if they did something wrong I'm sure that they were sorry – this world could do with a little forgiveness." Naruto never thought as his clones as individuals before, and from that point on he treated them better, having learnt a good life lesson…_

_Well, I guess I'll give him _one_ chance… for you, Tayuya_. Naruto nodded to Iruka in acknowledgement and thanks, surprising the teacher.

"Alright everyone, the final stage of our exams is threefold: you have to _successfully _perform the henge, substitution and clone jutsu – however, if you fail any of the jutsu or wish to better your final mark, we will be giving out an extra _ten percent_ to anyone who can perform extra jutsu. First up is Shino Aburame." Most students performed the jutsu successfully, but Naruto's mind wandered to two that were failing: _What is wrong with Ino and Hinata?_ Ino's clone jutsu looked much paler than herself and only lasted for a few seconds before dispelling but made a saving grace with her **Mind Transfer** jutsu. _That jutsu… Kargoth used that jutsu a few times, I'll have to find out more about it because I have rarely heard of it – and now a genin uses it?_ Hinata was having trouble with her substitution; Naruto had seen throughout the year that whenever her confidence faltered, so did her courage, and it didn't help that Sasuke was muttering about how pathetic she was – so Naruto did the hard work for her: he substituted, putting on a shocked face before substituting back, with an equally surprised look on her face. Thankfully, Iruka was looking down as his clipboard and as such didn't see her shocked face, which she quickly removed.

"Well everyone has attempted the three jutsu, would anyone like to perform an extra jutsu for a higher score?" Only Sasuke and Naruto put their hands up, Sasuke to try and assert his dominance as the best, and Naruto to give Sasuke the shits.

"Alright, Sasuke you're up." He harrumphed and opened a widow.

"**Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!**" he completed some handsigns and put a hand to his mouth, he took in a large lungful of air and his chest swelled up twice as much. When he exhaled, a large fireball about four metres in diameter shot out of his mouth and stayed ten metres away from him. The fireball was sustained for a few moments before he turned to the class and snidely 'hnn'-ed at them before taking his seat.

"Well done Sasuke! It's incredibly rare for an academy student to know their elemental affinity, let alone any jutsu, well done! Naruto, your turn." As he was walking from the back of the room Naruto's options were going through his head: _I don't want to reveal my instrument just yet, I don't want to show my wind jutsu yet… of course._

"You ready?" Iruka nodded.

"**Shadow Clone Jutsu!**" None of the students knew what a Shadow Clone was – shouldn't he be black if he's made of shadows? But Iruka knew the gravity of this, his mouth hung agape.

"But… how could you possibly know that jutsu? It's a forbidden jutsu?! It has to be a fake." The clone walked over to Sasuke and had a hand in the air.

"Can I get a high-five from my buddy Sas? C'mon man! No?" Sasuke just grunted at the clone, who proceeded to get him in a headlock and give him a noogie.

"Say uncle! C'mon, say uncle!" The students – bar Sasuke – were amazed, it was a solid clone! They could only do illusionary clones… that's awesome!

"It's a real shadow clone…" Iruka said the words softly in awe. Realising that Iruka realised, Naruto dispelled his clone and took a seat. After closing his mouth Iruka dismissed them for the day, telling them that their teams and rankings would be revealed tomorrow.

That night, Naruto was out the back of the village, playing a sorrowful tune on his violin, causing it to rain.

"Hey Naruto! Nice work out there today!" Naruto looked up from his violin and found Mizuki approaching, waving. _What does this worm want?_

"Listen, it turns out that rookie of the year is tied between you and Sasuke, but we're issuing a tiebreaker: the Hokage has left his office for the night and lessened the guard to a minimum for this exercise. You need to go onto the top floor to the scroll vault, and while it is forbidden for anyone without authorization to go in there, he is allowing you to entrance, in the middle of the room should be a pedestal with a large scroll on it, it you can bring it back here within the next hour, the title is yours!" Naruto sighed in annoyance.

"I can't be bothered with Sarutobi's little test – I know it is a lie because he didn't score high enough in the initial theory test; if you want the forbidden scroll, get it yourself." Mizuki's façade broke and his face turned to anger.

"This has got nothing to do with that ageing old coot, demon! While Lord Orochimaru wanted the scroll, I'm sure he'll be fine with the demon child! Oh wait, you don't even know what im talking about, AHAHAHAHAHAAAAA" Mizuki cackled evilly, Naruto just sighed and placed the violin back to his neck, feeling the familiar  
hatred, wrath and bloodlust roll off of it.

"I'm tired of this, goodbye Mizuki. **Misery Chime.**" He played a set of six very high notes as Mizuki charged with pure hatred at him, before stopping. He fell to his knees and clutched at his head, his eyes rolling upwards and beginning to bleed. Mizuki's back arched upwards, his spine snapping so that he was paralysed but still alive, his arms and legs slammed into the ground with such force that his bones broke – his vulnerable state condemning him to misery, hence the name of the jutsu. When Naruto approached his prone form, he spun his ebon bow around and decapitated Mizuki, the obsidian fang having no trouble slicing through flesh and bone. Naruto resealed his bow, but as he was bringing his violin back to his right shoulder, the Fox communicated with him:

**_Good… your quest for vengeance has finally begun in earnest… I am almost pleased._**Naruto sealed the violin back in his chest and thought to himself,

_I don't care if you are pleased or not Kyuubi… but what Mizuki said intrigued me: he was not doing this for Sarutobi, rather Orochimaru, the fallen Sannin; maybe I should tell Sarutobi…_ as he had that thought, a wicked grin split Naruto's face. _But if I don't, then Sarutobi will be caught unawares by any attack that he makes… this predicament is a fortuitous one indeed… _

Iruka stood proudly at the front of the class, looking at the new group of – he was proud every time he said it – genin.

"Alright everyone, obviously everyone present has passed and become a genin, so I would like to start off with a round of applause to everyone in attendance, and of course, to those who failed who are not here today – may they have better luck next time!" The class erupted in a cheer of whistling and clapping before Iruka motioned with his hands for them to hush down.

"When you leave this room today, I want you all to do it with your heads held high, for you are now genin of Konoha!" The class cheered heartily, and Iruka had to force himself to stop them.

"Unfortunately, this is my last day teaching all of you, so while I'm sure I'll see you all around the village… well, I just want to say-" one of the civilian students turned towards the rest of the class.

"Three cheers for Iruka-sensei before he turns on the waterworks everyone! Hip-hip, hooray! Hip-hip, hooray! Hip-hip, hooray!" Iruka shamelessly let a tear roll down his cheek at the affection that his class showed for him. After a minute the clapping died down.

"Thank you, everyone – but to save anymore tears or rounds of applause, I'll get straight down to business. So before I announce the top three rankings, and who won rookie of the year, I will now read out your squads, squad one is…"

**(AN: like most authors, I can't be stuffed making up lots of naruto-esque names) **

"… Squad Seven shall be: Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno…" _Sarutobi, if you put me with them-_ Naruto's dreaded thoughts were proven unfounded:

"… and Kiba Inuzuka." _Well, that was surprising – he must be putting me with Shino, so his bugs can drain my chakra, good play._

"Squad Eight consists of Shikamaru Nara, Shino Aburame," _And Naruto Uzumaki_

"And Choji Akimichi." Choji was happy that he could be with Shikamaru, and Shino wasn't too bad a guy either. Naruto was confused – _a three _man_ group? What is he thinking?_ Naruto then looked to the only two people that weren't already in a group, _Ino and Hinata… that son of a bitch! He's making a suicide squad! I actually didn't think he could stoop low enough to throw away the lives of Leaf ninja – other than myself that is._

"Squad Nine is still in service, so Naruto Uzumaki, Ino Yamanaka and Hinata Hyuuga will make up Squad Ten." Hinata and Ino moved to Naruto's corner and gave an awkward greeting, they didn't talk to Naruto much at all, and now to be on a team with him?

"Alright, on the wall outside has you all ranked and your actual percentage, but it is tradition for the sensei to call out the top three, and rookie of the year, before the class sees the results, so without further ado, in third place… was Shino Aburame, with a score of 88%." The groups clapped for their high-achieving classmate.

"In second place, on 103.6%... Sasuke Uchiha!" The class, apart from the Sasuke fan club – and their exalted leader – clapped for Sasuke, unknowingly adding to his humiliation.

"So in first place, as our rookie of the year on 108.8% - Naruto Uzumaki! Here is your headband Naruto. Well, that's it from me, I now hand you over to your jonin-sensei's who should be arriving any minute now." Iruka shunshined away before he could get any more emotional.

Back at Naruto's table, Ino and Hinata watched in great fascination as Naruto removed his cloth, expecting him to open his eyes now that he was a genin, or see some wound – something. Knowing in advance that he would win the spot – and even if he didn't he was going to change his headband anyway – he reached into his pocket and removed a sewing needled that had some red thread on it. Ino and Hinata were mystified as they watched their teammate unstitch the black cloth, remove the Leaf plate and restitch it to his blood-red cloth – all with his eyes closed! He tied the discarded black headband around his left bicep – as a sign of mourning.

As Naruto was retying the cloth at the back of his head, Sasuke fumed and marched up to him.

"Give me that headband – you don't deserve it."

"Really Sasuke? I beat you; go back to your fan club." He laid a hand in front of Naruto, palm up.

"I am an Uchiha! I demand that you-"

"SIT DOWN!" Naruto's patience had finally run out, he could no longer stand the ungrateful puke – not that he could really stand him before - he shot a large mass of chakra at Sasuke, cannonballing him into the wall on the far side of the room. Sakura squealed and ran over to Sasuke to see if he was alright – he was unconscious. She stormed over to Naruto,

"What did you do that for! You hurt my poor Sasuke!" Naruto groaned and rubbed a temple.

"I raised my voice you silly bitch – did you see me move?" Sakura was – thankfully – shut up by the arrival of several of the jonin sensei, calling for their teams. She returned to Sasuke's side to care for him, also awaiting her jonin sensei.

Eventually, all that was left was Naruto, Ino, Hinata, and an uncomfortable silence. A woman shunshined into the room, she wore a mesh shirt, miniskirt and a large tan trench coat, her hair was tied in a spiky bun that also had two bangs framing the sides of her face.

"Wow, so I guess you three are Squad Ten, follow me." Instead of saying a location and shunshining away like most of the jonin, she opened a window and jumped onto the adjacent roof. Naruto, Hinata and Ino quickly followed suit, jumping from rooftop to rooftop before she stopped abruptly.

"You can keep up with me, so I guess that's a start. What? Don't look at me like that." When she said that it was a start, Naruto crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

"Look, I think we all know that this is a bullshit squad – the two lowest scorers and the rookie of the year? While it's a nice thought that your skill will rub off of them, it's pretty damn unrealistic, and having me as your sensei? Put it this way – I'm not a people person." With her rant finished, Hinata pushed her fingers together and Ino held an arm by her side, sensing their discomfort, the woman sighed.

"I guess that was a bit harsh, we should probably introduce ourselves, talk about our dreams, hopes for the future, likes, dislikes – all that crap. I'm Anko Mitarashi, I don't dream, I haven't really thought that much about the future, I like a lot of things, dislike a lot of shit… alright, bluenette, you're up."

"I-I'm Hinata H-Hyuuga… I d-dream th-things, I hope t-to b-be a good ninja, I l-like s-some things… I d-don't really hate a-anything…" Anko shook her head and nodded to Ino.

"I'm Ino Yamanaka, I don't really have a dream, I hope to be a good clan head in the future and join the torture squad, I like flowers and I hate people who pre-judge." Anko then looked at Naruto,

"Alright, we've heard from scaredy eyes and blue eyes – it's your turn no eyes."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, my dream? You wouldn't believe me if I told you, my hope is probably to achieve my dream, I like music and my privacy, I hate a lot of things, what now chief?" Anko's eye twitched,

"First off, don't call me 'chief', bub, and secondly: I can't work with someone I know so little about, so tell me your dream… or take off that blindfold." Naruto was going to refuse both demands, but then a thought hit him:

"I'll take it off one condition: Ino, your Mind Transfer jutsu, where did you learn it?" Ino was confused that Naruto would ask a weird question like that, but she wanted to see his full face too.

"It's a Yamanaka clan jutsu, handed down from one generation to the next; my dad taught it to me."

"A clan jutsu – so no one but those with Yamanaka blood can learn it, right?"

"Yeah… why do you want to know?"

"No reason." He reached up behind his head and undid his blood-red cloth, and opened his eyes. All three females gasped upon seeing his glowing silver orbs, Hinata blushed at the feeling of purity the radiated from them.

"How did that happen?" Anko asked, but Naruto just closed his eyes and redid his cloth.

"An accident, and you'd be doing me a favour by not telling anyone." Ino was perplexed,

"Why don't you tell anyone Naruto? And why do you wear it? It seems that you can see perfectly."

"I get called 'demon' enough, and while I don't care what people think nor say, it does get incredibly annoying, although few people even recognise me anymore – which is good. And I wear it so that I don't have to walk around with my eyes closed." _And as a constant reminder of how I failed Tayuya… I'll make them burn._

"Well that's certainly … interesting. Now that I've seen your eyes I can tell a bit more about you." _Not much, but a bit – you're a lot different from what people say about you, Naruto Uzumaki._

"Alright, now that we've got that out of the way, I'll see you all back here tomorrow morning at eight am sharp, dismissed!" Naruto began walking away before Ino and Hinata caught up to him.

"Hey Naruto, how come people _do_ call you a demon?" _If they don't already know then their parent are shielding them… I'll let them for now._ He reached to one of the three sealing scrolls on his belt and took a kunai out of his holster.

"Ignorance, that's why. Let me ask you a question: what do I have in my hands?" He held up the scroll and kunai so they could easily see.

"A k-kunai and a sealing sc-scroll." Naruto nodded and sealed the kunai,

"And now?" It was Ino who answered this time,

"A sealing scroll with a kunai in it – what's this supposed to mean?" Naruto placed both items back on his belt and shook his head.

"I might tell you one day, see you tomorrow." He continued walking and rounded a corner, Ino walked after him.

"Hey Naruto, don't you want to…hang out?" By the time she had turned the corner, Naruto was gone.

Naruto shunshined to the back of his apartment and walked inside, mulling over his team; _Hinata Hyuuga, equal lowest passing score, confidence problems. A laughable ninja now, yes, but with time she could become great – and a clan heiress to boot? Why would Sarutobi risk a clan's wrath? Ino Yamanaka, joint lowest passing grade with Hinata, more concerned with how she looks in relation to boys – with the right mindset and a _lot_ of training, she too could rise to become a great ninja – but she's also a clan heiress – would Sarutobi really be willing to sacrifice these two to take me out? Then there's Anko, she's a jonin… I have heard people call her the 'snake whore' around town – probably due to the fact that Orochimaru was her sensei… but why kill her? Is she expendable somehow?_ Naruto put the thoughts at the back of his mind – they could wait – and played a light tune on his violin before going out to train.

Anko was waiting atop the dango shop for her genin squad. _Well this should be just _fun_, I wonder what that old fuck has cooked up for me this time._ Anko's thoughts drifted to her conversation with the Hokage a few nights ago:

_"…There is a way we could avoid this situation Anko, you know very well that there are a number of seduction missions available. Which would you prefer, genin team, or seduction?" _

_"Fine – I'll take the damn team."_

The council had often sent her on seduction missions; she always came back with the required intel or evidence, but there was always a man somewhere who was in a bloody mess on the side of the road – fuck using her body, she just beat the crap out of them for the information. She got so damn pissed off when people called her the 'snake whore', Orochimaru never did anything to her! Sure, near the end of their time together he could be creepy as fuck, but he never touched her – and because of her reputation she was still a virgin – although in a village like Konoha, that didn't upset her too much.

"Morning, Anko." She didn't even hear Naruto turn up, there was something _off_ about that kid, sure, she didn't know him… but he just eeked a weird vibe. Anko used that time to actually take in his character: he wore black ninja sandals, black shorts with a kunai holster on his left leg, indicating he was a right hander. He was wearing a thin belt that held three scrolls on his right side and a roll of ninja wire on his left, his shirt was also black, with a black – was that a headband? – on his left bicep. The only piece of colour on him was his blood-red bandana that also displayed his Konoha Leaf symbol. When she saw the palms of his hands she could have sword that she saw a small – probably a centimetre across – seal on each of his palms,_ who could have done that? Last time I checked, there were only two seal workshops in the village, and neither of them sold to anyone under chunin rank._ His build was also intriguing, you could tell that he was well muscled, but he looked skinny – no that's not the right word – kind of gaunt, at the same time. But the most interesting thing about him was his posture, he walked with his back straight and his head held high – she wondered how this was possible after all his years of constant abuse, although she didn't see him around the village for… it must have been six years or so, she actually thought that he died.

She nodded in acknowledgement, and a minute later Ino and Hinata turned up.

"Alright, what we're going to do today is do a few D-rank missions, team building and all that crap, in every afternoon we have together I'm going to turn you three runts into actual ninja." She began walking but Naruto interrupted her,

"Anko, don't we have some kind of 'genin test'? Like I heard that Kakashi does some bell test, Gai does some kind of decathlon…" She huffed angrily.

"I reckon the real genin test is out there, on actual missions, but if you want one so badly… **Shadow Clone Jutsu!** If you can dispel all ten clones within the next hour you're officially genin, if not – back to the academy. I'll be downstairs." She shunshined into the dango restaurant properly before Ino and Hinata had a chance to protest, Ino turned to Naruto.

"Smooth moves Naruto – how are we going to catch them all in an hour? She's a jonin, we're just genin, we barely passed the genin exams – we came equal last!" _Sarutobi, that you would sacrifice these two in your petty attempt to take me out is despicable – these two won't burn, I'll give them a chance as well… it's what Tayuya would have wanted._ Naruto placed a hand on both their shoulders and looked to Ino.

"So? You are still genin – if you expect to fail then you will, if you expect to pass, then you will. Hinata, activate your Byakugan, where are the clones?" she did so, making the veins around her eyes become more prominent.

"T-they're in the u-um… old q-quarter, there, they're s-scattered though" She pointed in the direction of Naruto's house and he nodded, making the ram seal with his hands.

"**Shadow Clone Jutsu!** Alright, you know approximately where they are, operate in groups of four, move out!" The forty shadow clones nodded and leapt from building to building, rapidly moving in a search-and-destroy pattern, finding and eliminating all of Anko's clones.

"The quicker we get this done the sooner Anko will take us seriously." For the second time in just as many days, Ino and Hinata looked at Naruto in awe – he created forty solid clones!

During the twenty-three minute period in which the clones were capturing and eliminating the Anko clones, Ino plucked up the courage to ask Naruto a question:

"Hey Naruto, lemme ask you something – and I don't mean anything when I say thins – but, have you ever angered my dad… like fought him?" Naruto shook his head.

"I've never even talked to him, why do you- let me guess, he didn't want you on a team with me."

Ino was a bit shocked that Naruto could guess it.

"Y-Yes, how did you know?" Naruto shrugged his shoulders,

"I'm not all that surprised, an educated guess really. Did your dad have anything to say Hinata?"

"H-he said t-that I could l-learn from the r-rookie of the y-year, n-no matter _what_ I-it is." Ino gasped when she realised what Hiashi meant.

"Naruto, is this because people call you a demon? What do they mean by it? You look like a normal person to me." Naruto let out a small chuckle.

"Yes, it is… I might tell you why later – but for now, my clones have finished catching Anko's, let's meet her." Ino looked confused,

"How do you know?" Naruto explained as they walked:

"The reason why the shadow clone is a forbidden jutsu is because they don't just use your chakra, they take it away – people can and have died from it. The main two reasons why Leaf Shinobi use it – no other hidden village knows it – is because if you get hit by a shadow clone you will actually take damage, unlike illusionary clones. The second reason is because when they dispel they instantly send back everything they have seen and heard – good for scouting and training." Hinata and Ino were mystified at how Naruto could to a forbidden jutsu, but their questions would have to wait as they were entering the restaurant. They found Anko looking shocked.

"How can you have finished so quickly? And were those – shadow clones?"

"Yes, and because of Hinata's Byakugan. What next?" She shook her head – this kid was something else. She put some money on the table and walked out with them.

"The best thing about being a ninja ever(!) D-rank missions(!)."

The Hokage smiled at Squad Ten as they returned from their tenth D-rank mission.

"Ahh Squad Ten, welcome back – here is your pay." As they picked up the envelopes that held their money, Anko and Naruto noticed that theirs were somewhat lighter than Ino's and Hinata's.

"We're ready for out next mission, Lord Hokage." He shuffled through some papers and handed her one.

"What the – this is a C-rank mission, you must have given us the wrong one." Anko showed him the paper that had a large 'C' on the corner of it. He shook his head and smiled, exposing his rotten teeth.

"Well, there is always the option of doing some, _alternate _missions, Anko." Anko narrowed her eyes at the Hokage and took the C-rank mission back.

"We'll take this one… protecting a bridge builder from bandits, who is the guy." The Hokage did some digging into the bridge builder and the Land of Waves – the shipping magnate Gato had placed a fifty-thousand ryo bounty on the bridge builder's head – due to the added risk of ninja presence, the mission would easily classify as a high B-rank, or a low A-rank – but hey, what's a letter of difference going to make?

"Tazuna, enter!" A man walked in, he was at least in his fifty's and was swigging from a long-neck, wore a straw hat and glasses.

"Are these supposed to be the ninja protecting me? Three of them are kids, and the girl looks like she's barely even eighteen – hey, can that one even see, did you give me a blind ninja?" The Hokage smiled evilly at Anko and Naruto,

"I assure you, they are all proficient ninja, and Anko here can attend to your _every_ need. Move out." Tazuna smiled lecherously at Anko, who glared daggers at him.

"Tazuna, Squad Ten, we meet by the west gate in twenty minutes – pack for a week-long trip." She shunshined to her apartment as the three ninja ran to their houses to prepare.

When Hinata turned up last at the gate, she looked at Naruto and Ino.

"N-Naruto, where I-Is your p-pack?" He unclasped the scroll from the left side of his belt.

"In here, if you want me too, I can seal you and Ino's gear in here; it will conserve your strength too." Hinata and Ino thanked him and he sealed their bags up and saw that Anko has a scroll with her, containing all of her gear as well.

As soon as Konoha – and its lookouts – were out of sight, Anko grabbed Tazuna swiftly by his neck and held him against a tree.

"I don't give a fuck what the Hokage said: you touch me or even _look_ at me the wrong way and I'll cut your fucking balls off and feed them to you, got it?" Tazuna was sweating as he gulped and nodded – there goes that idea.

They were walking for an hour when Anko spotted a puddle on the ground, _that's odd, it hasn't rained for a week or two, thankfully, it must be a genjutsu!_ Due to Naruto's witchsight, as soon as he laid eyes on the puddle he saw the real image of two ninja in the middle of the road, staring at Tazuna. Since their attention and vision was focused on the bridge builder, Naruto didn't hesitate in dispatching them with kunai, the first one dying instantly with a kunai lodged in his brain pan, the second was immobilised with a shuriken going through either knee.

Tazuna screamed and jumped back as two men – one screaming and one dead – seemed to materialise out of nowhere onto the middle of the road, Ino and Hinata were taken back a step but held their ground, but Anko was surprised that Naruto guessed a genjutsu, let alone see through it.

"What the hell!" Tazuna shouted, Naruto just walked past him and removed the three weapons, wiped them off and put them back in his pouch.

"AAAAAARRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH! You little fuck! You killed my brother! Arghhh! I'll kill you!" Naruto's answer was to place a foot onto the terrible wound and to press down, making it all the more painful.

"Anko?" She regained her composure and nodded to him, drawing a kunai and advancing up to the prone ninja.

"The Demon Brothers, they're a pair of contract killers from the Village Hidden in the Mist. Who sent you!" She directed the demand at the dying ninja.

"I'll never tell you filthy Leaf whore!" Wrong answer. She reached down to his ankle with her kunai and cut one of his Achilles tendon.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AHHHHHHHHH! AAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Hinata puked as his body flopped around like a marionette with a string cut, Ino was looking green.

"Who sent you or the other one goes." She asked the question with such calmness that it scared Tazuna.

"AHH FUCK! GATO! HE'S AAAGGGHHHH AFTER THE AAAHHH BRIDGE BUILDER AHHHH-" His screams were cut short as Anko slashed his jugular, killing him nigh-on instantly.

"Good work Naruto, Hinata, Ino – as ninja you will see things much worse than this, I don't want to see either of you cower at bloodshed again, understood?" They both nodded their head meekly; they knew that they had to change.

"Tazuna, explain."

**(Insert Tazuna's tragic story about Wave)**

"Damn it! The Hokage must have known this! This would easily classify as a B-rank mission, possibly even A-rank. We should go back to the village, but I have to pay my bills, so we'll continue." Grateful that they would continue the mission, Tazuna began their journey at a faster pace.

Having encountered an enemy presence, Naruto was walking with his red demon sight active, although it reduced his overall vision range, he could now see the full 180 degree arc in front of him. His vigilance paid off when he noticed a flicker of movement from the trees and a gigantic sword came swinging for his neck. He jumped back just in time, it thudded into a tree and a tall ninja flickered onto it; he wore large purple pants, leg warmers on his forearms, was bare chested and his headband was on the side of his head.

"Nice reflexes boy, so it was Leaf ninja who killed Gozu and Meizu? Damn that's sad; this will be like taking lambs to the slaughter, **Hidden Mist Jutsu!**" A chakra powered fog spread all throughout the area, Anko swore.

"Fuck, we have no way of fighting him – fall back; I'll try and hold him off."

"No Anko, leave this to me." Anko couldn't believe her ears – Naruto was going to try and take on Zabuza?

"Naruto get out of there – that's Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Mist. Only I have a chance against him." Naruto's calm reply floated out to her,

"I know perfectly well who he is, and if you don't trust me then I'm disobeying a direct order." _I can see fine through the mist with my witchsight, and a jonin would be a good opponent to test myself. I can't let any of them die though, I need a full team if I want to spread my name and have Kargoth fine me – besides, there is palpable tension between Sarutobi and Anko._

"So you wanna take me on brat? My pleasure." Naruto's ears deceived him; he heard four different sets of footsteps, and yet he could only see Zabuza. _That's a nice trick, but mine's better._ Because his Squad couldn't see inside the fog Naruto could use his venting. He flexed both ring fingers back to his palms and directed chakra into the seals there, producing two kunai. As he returned his ring fingers to his outsplayed hands, Naruto vented chakra, shooting the two kunai at Zabuza's torso. The first one lodged itself between the bottom two ribs on his left side, the second only grazed him.

"What!? How is that possible!" Zabuza was moving silently through his fog, careful not to disturb any branches or leaves when he was struck by the kunai. He sacrificed his stealth for speed as he lunged at Naruto with his sword mid-swing. Naruto jumped back and contemplated fighting back with the obsidian 'fang' on the back of his bow – but knew that he would be sealing his fate, challenging one of the seven ninja swordsmen to a duel. As soon as the blade missed Naruto, Zabuza spun the sword over and launched a vicious back-swipe, knowing that he couldn't dodge, Naruto vented chakra from his two crossed arms, stopping the blow before jumping back further.

"What was that!? That should have cut right through you!" the rest of Squad Ten had their guard up, but was listening with great intent and confusion – what was going on?

To catch Zabuza off-guard, as Naruto was jumping back he vented chakra from his head and ankles, making him fall on his back but propelling forwards. He knew that if he tried swiping with the knives Zabuza would jump and he would have wasted an attack – so he simply shot another two kunai, one into Zabuza's calf, another into a thigh. His concentration broken, Zabuza's mist dissipated. Zabuza swung his sword as he was falling, trying to catch Naruto off guard, it may have worked had three senbon not pierced his neck, killing him instantly.

As the fog cleared, Anko sprang forwards, intent on joining the fight, but was surprised to find a Mist hunter ninja holding Zabuza, and Naruto completely fine.

"You have my thanks – I have been tracking Zabuza for days." That was all the ninja said before shunshining away, they all ran over to Naruto.

"N-Naruto! A-are you o-okay?"

"Wow Naruto! You took on a jonin and won! How did you do that?"

"Yes Naruto, how _did_ you do that?" Naruto looked in the direction that the Mist ninja came from before looking back at them.

"I'll explain later, we need to get to Wave before anymore bounty-hunters – ninja or otherwise – intercept us." Anko let him off the hook, for now.

After Tazuna opened the door to his house, Squad Ten was greeted by a smiling woman with a kind face and long black hair.

"Father, are these the ninja you hired?" he nodded as they entered.

"Yeah, this is Anko, Naruto, Ino and Hinata. This is my daughter Tsunami." They exchanged pleasantries while Squad Ten stowed their equipment.

"Alright, thanks for letting us crash here Tsunami, and if you don't mind us, we're going to do some training."

"Of course! Don't let me stop you."

Anko led the three genin to a small clearing before turning on Naruto.

"Alright spill it, how did you hold your own against a jonin, let alone one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen?" Naruto sighed and nodded his head.

"This will be easier to explain if I add a demonstration, see that tree?" he pointed to a tree twenty metres away and they nodded, in one smooth motion he pulled out a kunai and threw it, sticking in a little left of centre.

"See _that_ tree?" this time he pointed to a tree that was roughly one hundred metres away and by itself. He unsealed a kunai and placed it on his palm for them to see. What they saw mystified them: without touching the kunai at all, he lifted it up, spun it slowly around before lifting his arm, pointing it at the tree and shooting it off at eye-dizzying speeds before thudding into the tree.

"I can vent chakra, I don't know how I can do it, but I've been doing it for years, and my eyes can see fine through the bandana, they pierce any genjutsu, that's how I could see the Demon Brothers through their genjutsu."

"But… _how_ can you do this Naruto? I've never heard of anyone do that; jonin, sannin, Kage – no one." Naruto sighed in resignation.

"Eighty percent of the village knows, two more people won't hurt. You all know how the Nine-tailed fox attacked the village thirteen years ago, right? Well as it happened you can't kill a tailed beast, only seal it, Anko you already know this, but Ino and Hinata – it was sealed into _me. _The only reason that I can think of why I am able to vent chakra is because of my high chakra levels. Due to an _accident_, I lost my eyes, it took a few years but the Fox made me these, in the meantime he gave me a version of demon sight. Having said all of this, I request that you don't disclose this to anyone."

"Well… that's unexpected." Anko was surprised, but she was slowly coming to understand that that was how Naruto communicates – via surprise.

"So… you've got a demon just, _residing_ in you?" Naruto led out a short, but not unkind, laugh.

"That's where it gets complicated; the Fox isn't in me anymore." _In that respect, no._ Anko placed a hand on her kunai pouch instinctively.

"So you're saying that there's a Tailed beast roaming around out here? How could we not have detected it?"

"You would have… it's complicated, just, don't worry about the Fox." Anko was having difficulty being convinced, but nodded anyway.

"So t-that's w-what you m-meant by the kunai a-and the s-scroll." He nodded.

"Alright, now that we've got that out of the way… though I'm not too sure what _that_ was, let's do some training. Today, tomorrow and Friday will be on chakra control, Saturday and Sunday we'll focus on fighting – but for now, we're gonna walk up trees!" Her bright smile and can-do attitude took the two girls off-guard.

"We're gonna-"

"-Walk up t-trees?" Anko found it creepy that they finished each other sentences, but continued on;

"You got it."

"Anko, I can already tree-walk, and walk on water… what should I do?" Anko _wanted_ to not believe him, but knew he was telling the truth. She was thinking it over when a malevolent smile crossed her face,

"How about you help Tazuna for the day?" he nodded and shunshined back to the house.

"You're fucking kidding me! He can shunshin too!" Ino raised her hand as she spoke, interrupting Anko's disbelief.

"So Anko, walking up trees?" The malevolent grin reappeared on Anko's face.

"I've got a better idea – strip your kit!" She said it happily and neither of the girls understood what she was talking about.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we can all agree that Hinata needs more confidence, and she won't be able to do much without it. A lot of people think that the best way to swim is to take it slow, walk down the cement steps, swim in the shallow end, ect. _I_ believe that they should be thrown into the deep end with sharks waiting for them – you'll learn to swim pretty damn quick that way. So, take off your clothes." Ino looked outraged and Hinata blushed deeply.

"You want us to WHAT!?"

"Take off your clothes; fine… you can leave your underwear on. I'll even join you!" She proceeded to take off her trench coat and miniskirt, leaving her in her boots and fishnet suit – leaving pretty much nothing to the imagination.

"Let me rephrase that: strip to your underwear… or I'll do it for you." As she was finishing her sentence she produced a _very_ sharp looking kunai. Ino and Hinata quickly complied, stripping to their underwear, Ino had a matching pink bra and panties, while Hinata had a blue sports bra and green panties, both used a hand to cover their private areas. Anko created ten (clothed) shadow clones who shunshined away.

"I've just sent ten shadow clones out to patrol the area, if they find anyone they'll dispel and tell me, and I'll tell you two to put your clothes back on. So arms out! No covering up." They held their hands slightly away from their bodies, blushing profusely, Hinata looked on the verge of tears.

"Hinata, if you cry I'll make you take your bra off, so toughen up! Alright, that's better. Now, it feels even worse because we're standing still, so let's go for a run!" She led them on the jog of their lives, Ino stopped and covered herself every time she heard a sound, be it an animal making a sound or a tree rustling, to her credit, Hinata didn't cry or freak out at each sound, she was beyond petrified!

One thing was sure, Hinata would build up her confidence – or Anko would shove it down her throat, and when Naruto returned that night – boy would he be in for a surprise!

**HA HA! Cliffhanger dear readers! Thanks for reading my second chapter, chapter three will be up soon enough. One request though, if you are going to flame my stories (which is cool by me), I have two requests, one is that you explain ****_why_**** it sucked balls, and two is for the love of god be literate! I nearly cried when I saw one review – not because it was a flame, but because he called Naruto a "fagget", and didn't expect a song fic – it's called the fucking Dread Minstrel of Konoha, you illiterate, uneducated tosspot!**

**Musical quote of the week:**

**_Thor, the mighty! Thor, the brave! Crush, the infidels in your way! By, your hammer let none be saved! Live, to die on that final day!_**

- **Thor (The Powerhead), Manowar**


	3. 03 - Revelation

**Chapter 3, here we are; they've finally arrived in Wave, Naruto is off guarding Tazuna at the bridge and Anko is training Hinata and Ino – but why are they only in their underwear?**

**If I owned Naruto, I'd tell you now, but I don't, so you'll just have to read and find out!**

Naruto had shunshined to the bridge and was talking to Tazuna about the bridge.

"So Tazuna, how long do you need us for?" Tazuna took off his hard hat and wiped his head before replacing the helmet.

"It's difficult to say, we've had a few men quit work because of Gato. We don't have that long to go really, it's just that when we are placing the final few sections of the bridge and laying the support pylons we will be at our most vulnerable. _If _we don't lose any more workers, and _if_ Gato doesn't destroy the bridge – I'd say a week to ten days. But we're placing a lot of hope on _if's_, boy."

"And if he does attack, how long will it take then?" Tazuna let out a short unpleasant laugh,

"If he attacks, there won't be a bridge – I'll catch up with you later, Jenkins! You dumbass, that lumber goes over there!" Naruto placed a few clone sentries around the bridge and decided to visit the town actually, to see if what people said was really true.

And it was true, as Naruto walked he found that not a single person didn't live in squalor, beggars lined the streets and children slept in gutters, their parents having been killed. Luckily for Naruto, the people saw his blindfold and thought that he actually _was_ blind, so they didn't ask him for any money.

He had walked through the town and was now on the outskirts, where houses were few and far between. As he walked, he saw a house by the side of the road in flames – he smiled in contempt, _I have mastered my fear of the fire – I can only wait until the Leaf has turned to cinders._

"P…ple…ase….help…me." The voice came from a girl who was trapped under a beam, and Naruto's blood ran cold – _Tayuya!_ Without hesitation he ran through the doorframe and looked upon the prone figure of a redheaded girl. _Tayuya… you're alive!_ He lifted the beams off of Tayuya and ran her outside, when he turned her over disappointment reigned. She would have been about seven years old, with cuts across her face, she had a pinkish tinge to her hair and a crooked nose – it wasn't Tayuya.

He shunshined her to the elders of the village without a word and began walking away, as he was leaving the girl spoke softly.

"Thank…you, mis…*cough*…ter" He turned her head slightly so she could see the side of her face,

"Don't thank me, you reminded me of someone else – that was why I saved you." He shunshined away and the girl cried – she was saved by accident – Naruto didn't hear her cry, but when he appeared in a nearby forest he vomited and fell against a tree, crying.

"Why Tayuya! *sob* Why can't I forget *sob* you?" As twin trails of blood and tears fell down his face, he realized that he couldn't, ever forget her, and he subconsciously _knew_ that every time he saw a redheaded girl that he would end up in a similar situation: crying over her memory. After drying his tears he realised the _worst_ thing about her dying: it wasn't that he could no longer have her familiar warmth by his side, it wasn't that he could no longer feel happiness, it wasn't that he was now forever consumed by feelings of revenge or sorrow; it wasn't that she was even _gone_ – it was that she died without him telling her how he truly felt, and that, he realised, hurt him more than anything the Fox ever put him through.

"On your right Hinata! Seven o'clock Ino!" Anko's plan to boost both their self-confidence was coming along nicely. When the two genin were just standing around, they felt very uncomfortable and insecure, scared shitless that someone might see them in just their underwear; but as Anko gave them more and more to do, more and more to focus on, the less vulnerable and exposed they felt – they simply didn't have time to care!

At the moment, Anko had created several illusionary clones with kunai, throwing them at Ino and Hinata from random directions – and they had to evade them all because they didn't know which Anko was which!

They had been evading the kunai for half hour when Anko stopped them – someone was approaching. She gave them their clothes back and Tsunami came into view, she smiled as she waved and walked over to Anko.

"Good afternoon Anko, Hinata, Ino – how goes the training?" Anko grinned and turned to Hinata,

"Well Hinata, have we improved?" While Tsunami didn't think anything of it, Ino and Anko were pleasantly surprised when Hinata looked Tsunami in the eye when she spoke.

"I-It's going well; it's been very… _interesting_. Wait, my- my stutter is nearly gone!" She looked to Ino and they hugged each other happily, Tsunami smiled unsurely and looked at Anko.

"It's no point building a house on crappy foundations; I knew we couldn't really train as a team until Hinata had some more confidence – actually, she had no confidence before, so she's already shown vast improvement in just a few hours." Tsunami smiled happily at the three women and turned back to Anko,

"That's excellent to hear, I'm happy for you Hinata. The main reason I came out here though was to warn you of the storm coming." Anko looked to where she was pointing and frowned, she had been looking in that direction not five minutes ago but she did _not_ see that rapidly incoming storm, it would be there within ten minutes.

"What the – where the hell did that come from? Alright, Ino, Hinata; we may have made a lot of progress in the last few hours, but I don't think I want you training in conditions like these - , it would be there within ten minutes.

"What the – where the hell did that come from? Alright, Ino, Hinata; we may have made a lot of progress in the last few hours, but I don't think I want you training in conditions like these – _yet_. So grab your gear and let's head back to the house." They nodded and picked up their discarded ninja equipment, seeing Anko's puzzled expression Tsunami felt that she should enlighten her.

"In the Land of Waves we have storms like this all the time, they can last anywhere from a few minutes to a few weeks – but, I don't think that I've ever seen one moving that fast, and I've lived here all my life." They left their thoughts behind as they hurriedly made may back to the house.

Meanwhile, Naruto was playing a morose melody on his violin, letting all of his sadness, grief and regret out in the form of his music. Grey storm clouds gathered above him and it started raining, he had to restrain himself from raining on Wave – if it rained then the progress of the bridge would be halted, and he would have to stay even longer in this damned land. He played for hours, becoming lost in memories of happiness, ironically bringing on more memories of sadness; he played until he had released all of his pent up emotions and opened his eyes: The storm had cleared as quickly as it had arrived. As his saturated clothes dripped onto the ground, he was reminded of a memory of Tayuya, about two months before she was murdered:

_Naruto finished playing his serenade for Tayuya and opened his eyes under his cloth, only to find the area drenched._

_"Damn, I thought I had that under control." Tayuya placed her hands on her hips, smiled and shook her head._

_"You're hopeless – every time you play music and get lost in it, we both end up wet. At least when I play nothing gets satched." She held her flute to her lips and tried playing a few notes, only for them to come out as low, quiet moans._

_"Even my flute it soaked!" He chuckled softly and she looked up at him._

_"Well, it's not all bad – with the rain on your face it's actually possible to look at you, shocking right? Hell, I'd even call you handsome." She smiled at him and a hint of blush touched her cheeks; he laid back on the boulder him and placed both hands behind his head. Tayuya's burning red hair stuck to her face and shoulders – she was perfectly beautiful in Naruto's eyes._

_"Oh yeah? The same could be said for you, you're not half bad to look at either." She punched him playfully in the arm and laid on top of the rock proper, but upside down so that their head were close together – they were both too frigid to come any closer, the agony of being apart being replaced with an effervescent feeling of bliss. Tayuya suddenly jumped off the rock and her eyes turned red, her hair rising from her head, she let out a bone chilling screech-_

Naruto banished the Fox from his now-corrupted memory and continued the journey back in both physical, and mental silence.

When Naruto arrived back at the house he was surprised to find Squad Ten inside, as opposed to training.

"You're back already? It's only three o'clock." Anko nodded,

"We were wary of the storm – looks like it must have hit you. Anyway, it seems to have cleared up, apparently that's what the weather's like here in Wave. Come on, you can help me teach them tree walking." Naruto nodded and created another shadow clone, it shunshined to the bridge to check the progress and soon after it dispelled – everything was proceeding smoothly.

When they arrived at the clearing in the forest, Naruto looked at Anko who was staring expectantly at Hinata for some reason; she seemed to be debating on something when – much to Naruto's surprise – she stripped down to her underwear. What Naruto found to be the most surprising thing; which others would have missed, was that she wasn't blushing at all, sure she was looking away, but there wasn't even a hint of pink on her cheeks.

"Well Ino? Hinata's got the ball rolling – I actually was going to let you keep your clothes on." Ino looked semi-shocked and her gaze flickered between Anko and Naruto.

"B-But Naruto's – I mean." Anko laughed at her,

"Don't tell me – has Hinata's stutter not only left her, but gone onto you as well?" Ino scowled before taking off her clothes as well, showing her matching underwear. Anko looked expectantly at Naruto,

"Well? Take 'em off – support your teammates." Anko was sadly disappointed when Naruto didn't protest; he hesitated for a moment before taking off his shirt, exposing scars that would have looked better on a war-veteran, and his shorts, uncovering his boxer-briefs and his impressive 'cargo'.

**(AN: Boxer briefs are those jocks that come down about six inches or so, instead of a two-inch waistband)**

Upon 'seeing the sights', Hinata and Ino both blushed and Anko grinned.

"Well there we go! We ladies have something to look at while we train. That aside, Naruto, since you can do both exercises to a high level I'm trusting you to train Ino, I'll take Hinata." Naruto nodded, e and Ino set off in the opposite, making as little eye-contact as possible: Ino because of the awkwardness, and Naruto because he saw how uncomfortable it was making her – and 'cause he couldn't give two shits about how she looked.

As soon as Naruto and Ino were out of earshot, Anko had to ask:

"Alright Hinata – it's girl time, what did you think of his package?"

"Okay Ino, how is your chakra control?" Ino was looking into Naruto's 'eyes' but she couldn't help her gaze flickering down.

"Oh! It's uh, good, it's big- It's, it's good!" _STOP STARING INO!_ She mentally scolded herself but couldn't help it, although his chest could; she noticed that he had all manner of odd wounds: there were kunai stabs and cuts, there was a line of puncture wounds that ran across his left side that looked as though a kunai ran across his skin, as opposed to cutting through, from the centres of his chest to his right hip ran… what seemed to be giant _claw _marks – but the most eye catching thing of all was his two red tattoo's; a fox claw on his left shoulder, and a giant fox's maw covering his right shoulder and pectoral.

"That's good, for this exercise you'll use your chakra to stick to the tree; but you need to be careful, if you use too much chakra then you will be pushed backwards, too little and you'll simply fall off – I suggest starting with a run up." After taking her eyes off of Naruto's scars, she walked back until there was a ten metre gap between her and the tree. She took a deep breath and sprinted at the tree, making it eight metres up before falling. She spun in the air and landed on her feet – a sure sign of a gymnast, Naruto threw her a kunai.

"Use that as to mark where you reached, then beat it. On a side note, think of a number between one and fifty." She caught the kunai and looked at him perplexed before answering:

"Thirty-six, why?" Naruto smiled at her,

"Alright, no breaks until you reach thirty-six metres on the tree, good luck." To add insult to injury, he _slowly_ walked up the side of the tree and marked off at thirty-six metres before lying down on a nearby branch.

"You jackass!" Naruto popped his head over the side of the branch and cupped an ear,

"What was that!? I can't hear you from all the way down there!" she muttered 'jackass' under her breath before giving the tree her all.

"That's enough Hinata! We're calling it a day!" Anko called up to Hinata who was easily sixty metres above her in the tree, she called an affirmation and jumped between trees to the ground below. They joined up with Naruto who was carrying Ino and Anko felt a pang of jealousy come off of Hinata.

"Hey Naruto! I can carry Ino, if you want."

"You sure?" she nodded and he passed Ino to Hinata, he looked to Anko and spoke.

"She hit the forty-four mark before passing out, she has good control but lacks a large chakra reservoir – how did Hinata do?" Anko grinned proudly,

"Sixty, so I guess that the sensei is a better teacher – who'd of thought?" Naruto smiled as she chuckled and they walked back to the house, it was only when they were approaching the front door did Naruto stop them.

"We're forgetting one thing – our clothes." Anko only just noticed that she was only wearing her fishnet suit; Naruto, Hinata and Ino were likewise in their underwear. A small breeze picked up and Anko shivered and Naruto had to smother a chuckle.

"What's so funny Naruto?" he knew he shouldn't have answered as soon as the words left his mouth:

"Oh nothing Anko, just a bit of wind in your flaps is all." Anko's eye twitched and she punched Naruto with a divine blow to the jaw.

"You pervert!" She was also partly surprised that he said it, him being so impassive and all. Anko shunshined to the field, grabbed their clothes and shunshined back. Naruto began dressing Ino when Hinata _insisted_ that she do it herself – Naruto gladly retreated, it was one thing to train when they were scantily clad, but to dress her just felt kinda wrong; especially after what he said to Anko.

Their days went by like that: Naruto would send some clones to the bridge before helping Anko train Hinata and Ino. It was their fourth day there, and Naruto was walking from the shower upstairs to him room. He walked in and what he heard chilled him to his deep; a few months ago, after many hours of meticulous work and purchasing items off of many a shifty merchant, was Naruto able to fashion his own gramophone, it would usually lie in the corner of his room, playing music that soothed him, but that song… _that_ song… He heard the familiar trumpet start up before a man with an interesting voice began singing:

_How lucky c-_ Naruto leapt forwards and vented chakra into Ino and Hinata, not enough to hurt them, but enough to push them away and stun them, he quickly lifted the needled and removed the vinyl, looking at their terrified faces.

"I apologise for that… you may use this, but _never, _play this – understood?" Ino and Hinata fearfully nodded their heads before they quickly left the room, Naruto switched off the light and staggered to the wall before sliding down and covering his face.

_Tell me quick, _

_Ain't love a kick, in the head!_

_They were both blushing by the time the song ended, but neither let go._

_"Naruto? I wouldn't mind… if we stayed like this, together…. With you, I mean."_

_"I agree Tayuya… in fact, I... I…"_

_"Yes?"_

_"I… it's nothing… it can wait till morning…"_

Naruto could feel the demon's presence slowly invading the memory before banishing him with absolute hatred, and the Fox made a rare mental connection: **_something the matter, Boy? Hahahahaa, what is so precious about that memory, is it because there was no morning?_**

Naruto waited until the Fox was fully out of his thoughts before answering, a whisper, only to himself:

"No… it's precious because it is the only memory that you have not defiled or tainted."

He waited for an hour before getting up off the floor. He dusted himself off and realised that he should actually apologise to the two girls. He put on his clothes (he was only wearing a towel before) and walked the hall to their room, he pressed down on the handle and entered.

"I just wanted to say that-"

"Naruto!"

"Naruto!"

He looked up from the floor a split second before they shouted his name, a split second, before they pulled apart from their kiss.

"I should probably just-"

"NO!" they shouted in unison at him again and he actually flinched. Hinata looked at him again before breaking into tears, Ino looked up at him and hugged Hinata, on the verge of tears herself. The sudden turn of events confused Naruto as their tears persisted, and then he realised that his distance made them feel alienated and rejected so he slowly walked forwards and hugged them both – making him _far_ more uncomfortable than the both of them – he wasn't exactly a 'people person'.

"W-Why are you *sob* hugging us? *sob*" Naruto smiled – he guessed correctly.

"Well why are you two crying?" it was Hinata who answered this time:

"Y-You mean *sob* you don't find *sob* us disgusting?" Naruto shook his head,

"Of course not, there's nothing wrong with being lesbians – so come on, stop crying." Hinata hastily dried her tears on her sleeve and Ino sniffled her nose.

"But, we're gay! We were always taught that it was wrong." Naruto looked almost disgusted with the statement,

**(AN: This also reflects my views, and I take this opportunity to point out that I am a guy – and I'm straight! Point that out – straight!)**

"That's absurd! Your sexual preferences are no one else's business! Besides, while I can't speak for women, most men have seen and _enjoyed_ lesbian porn, to criticize real life lesbians is the pinnacle of hypocrisy – honestly, I don't care either way, but don't let anyone else change your lifestyle because of what they feel – who are they to judge?" Hinata and Ino felt truly happy that Naruto accepted them, Ino was next to speak,

"Thanks Naruto, but… the way you *sniff* got into that speech, you're not… you're not gay too, are you?" Naruto pulled back a bit,

"Noooooooooo, I… never mind about me… I originally came here to apologise about before, so, my apologies for going off at you two. Have you told anyone else?" they looked slowly at each other and then at Naruto and shook their heads.

"No, you're the first to know, I guess we should tell Anko, huh?" Naruto nodded and left the two to their embrace, locking the door after him.

He left the house and went out into the darkened forest, following the sounds of fighting, finding Anko he approached her and waited patiently. A minute later she dispelled he clone she was fighting against and nodded to him to speak.

"I was thinking, that hunter-killer ninja, shouldn't she have killed Zabuza on the spot?"

"I had the same thought, granted, she may have wanted to take him back to Bloodmist for interrogation, but her facemask didn't look like one of the Ten Tsunami's." Naruto raised an eyebrow,

"The 'Ten Tsunami's'? Doesn't that sound a little grandiose?"

"You mean you never heard of them? They're like the equivalent of our Firebrands… come on; you can't say that you've never heard of _them_ either. Damn you need to get out more – the Firebrands are the ten best fire-jutsu users in all of, well I reckon in the whole world – barring the Hokage that is, anyway, they get their orders direct from Danzo, they barely even recognise the Hokage. Anyway, out of the five great nations they all have their own group of elitists, while the Ten Tsunami's are the best water users (baring the Mizukage), they excel at assassination missions, hunter-killer missions, snatch and grab, black bag ops – that kind of thing. But where the Tsunami's excel at steal and single target missions, the Firebrands only have one directive – pure and simple destruction, turning everything in their path to ash, it was they who burnt down part of training grounds 44-" In less than a blink of an eye, Naruto flicked the kunai in his palm out, with his hand splayed the blade was pointed at her jugular, with only a hairs breadth between the two; Naruto spoke slowly,

"Anko, choose your words _carefully_, can you say, with absolute certainty, that it was the firebrands who burnt the forest?" Anko gulped, actually causing a cut on her neck,

"Yes."

"And Danzo controls them, correct?"

"Yes." Naruto retracted the kunai back into his palm,

"Thank you, and I'm sorry I had to do that – don't ask why." As he walked off, Anko was angry, mystified and fearful in equal measure; angry that he was that close to killing her, mystified at why he wanted to know, and fearful because she didn't even see him move.

The next morning rolled over and they were eating breakfast at the table. Ino and Hinata had confessed last night that they were lesbians to Anko who received the news with a smile and said that it was fine; they had just finished discussing that Zabuza was still alive when they heard a small voice at the end of the table.

"You're all going to die." They all turned to see who said it when they saw an angry small boy – Naruto had heard him fine and kept munching on his toast, only replying a 'm-hm' between bites.

"How can you be so calm!" Naruto finished his mouthful and looked at the boy, who in turn was a bit creeped out that Naruto could see him.

"We're all going to die – why wouldn't we be calm?" The boy banged his fist on the end of the table angrily,

"You don't know anything! You don't know the pain and suffering we go through each day!" Naruto calmly pushed his chair away from the table and picked the boy up and held him against the wall and chakra-d a kunai out, three inches from his face.

"I could kill you right now, what difference would it make if you did in a thousand years' time – we're all going to die." The boy kept his angry face on, so Naruto lifted part of his bandanna, showing a glowing eye to the boy.

"As for pain and suffering, _look deep into my eye, see what he saw_." Remembering how Kargoth described his two obliterated eye sockets and bloody eye-stalks, Naruto projected an image of what he thought it would have looked like into the boys' mind. Naruto placed the boy on the ground, who ran to the toilet crying, needing to change his soiled pants and wanting the toilet to vomit into.

"Naruto, what did you just do?" Anko asked, Naruto removed his hand, letting the cloth go back into place before turning back around.

"I showed him a glimpse of reality." Ino and Hinata were wondering what could be so horrifying that could create such a scene, and smell. So Ino asked:

"Tazuna, who was that boy?"

**[Insert Kaiza story]**

"That's so sad…"

"On another subject, Tazuna, how long until the bridge is completed?" Tazuna wiped his eyes and thought,

"Actually, only today if we work fast enough, possibly tomorrow – can I request that you all come and guard the bridge, it's not that I don't believe in Naruto, it's just that I'd feel safer with all four of you; the last stages of building is where it will be at its most vulnerable." Anko nodded,

"Alright, Ino, Hinata; I know I haven't taught you any jutsu or combat skills yet, so just try and leave the fighting to me and Naruto." They both nodded and went upstairs to equip themselves for the probably-upcoming fight.

"Tazuna! Take the workers and get out of here!" As soon as they arrived, Zabuza's Hidden Mist Fog rolled in, blanketing Anko and her team.

"Anko, I mean no disrespect, but you have no hope of fighting in this fog – I need you to take out the ANBU with him, she could just as easily shunshin him away like last time." Anko nodded, Naruto could feel that sense of calm overtake his system, before the fog fully covered him and adrenalin coursed through his veins.

"You again! How can you see through my mist?" The voice came from everywhere, and yet nowhere at once, Naruto's ears deceived him again and so trusted his eyes fully once more. He couldn't use his violin because no matter how much or how little chakra he used, the fog would amplify his attack and hit his team, so he stuck with kunai.

"**Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!**" Zabuza wasn't taking any chances, he had to take this damn kid out fast – somehow he could see Zabuza. Naruto disliked revealing to his team that, not only did he know his elemental affinity, but he knew wind jutsu as well – but drastic times call for drastic measures. He slashed a kunai in the air in front of him, at the same time incanting:

"**Wind Style: Wind Blade Jutsu!**" The single kunai strike was amplified by his wind chakra and sliced through the powerful water dragon, but losing all of its power immediately afterwards. _Damn! I wish I mastered the Wind Sword jutsu now. _While the Wind _Blade_ jutsu amplified the destructive power of any sword stroke, or from one, create many blades in the air; a Wind _Sword_ is like an unavoidable long sword which leaves the targets body completely mutilated, and the wind chakra that is emitted from the fingertips, is near invisible.

"You're fucking annoying kid, but you're good too." Naruto dismissed the comment as Zabuza drew his blade – his chances of killing Zabuza were slowly decreasing.

"**Water Clone Jutsu!**" Three clones appeared alongside the original Zabuza, swords drawn.

"Oh shit…"

As Naruto began his fight, so too did Anko. The second the fog enveloped them all, she spun on her feet and easily deflected a flurry of shuriken aimed at her.

"You're good, but it's not the enemy you see that kills you – it's the one you don't see. **Demon Ice Mirrors!**" The fog cleared in Anko's immediate area and a group of twenty-one mirrors appeared around her. _What the hell are these?_ An image of the fake ANBU appeared in each of the mirrors, _so that's what this is, she creates clones in each of them – this is going to be fun._

Naruto was quick, and he had good reflexes, but since he didn't have surprise on his side like last time, Zabuza could evade most of Naruto's attacks, and the sheer size of Zabuza's blade put Naruto at a severe disadvantage. Naruto ducked under a slash that would have taken his head off and jumped to the side, but Zabuza changed his grip and spun, using his whole body as a fulcrum and not just his wrist. The slice caught Naruto on the left arm and created a deep gouge; he winced and jumped straight back, out of range. _Think! Think! Think! What do you have? I have my instruments, but I can't use those, I have wire, kunai and shuriken, some exploding kunai, and my wind jutsu… think damn you! Put it all together and what do you have!? _Naruto was dodging blows for a full minute before his plan came to him, he made a dozen shadow clones, four to a Zabuza – he had only just taken one clone out. He ran back to the edge of the fog and summoned a clone and Naruto gave him his ten exploding kunai.

"Remember, aim for Zabuza's blade, throw on three, one…two…three! **Wind Style: Gale Palm!**" As Naruto clapped his hands together the speed of the kunai increased dramatically before _thunk-_ing into his Kubikiribocho.

"Hahahahahah! You'll need a lot more than kunai to-"

_BOOM!_

The tags exploded, causing only minor damage to Zabuza, but critically hurtling the blade from his grip, Zabuza wasted no time in adapting to the situation:

"**Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!**"

"**Wind Style: Spiralling Wind Ball!**" Naruto raised a hand to his mouth and shot a flurry of small but fast moving wind balls at the water dragon. The first three destroyed the dragon and the last two pelted into Zabuza, throwing him backwards, destroying his concentration and dissipating the fog.

As soon as the fog weakened, Haku knew that something was wrong, she looked away from the woman in front of her – who was barely standing due to the senbon in her vital points, she should actually be unconscious by now – to see a boy standing over Zabuza with a ball of wind about to be plunged into his face. Haku acted instantly, she created a mirror right in front of Zabuza and took the hit herself – killing her instantly.

"**Wind Style: Spiralling Wind Ball!**" Naruto ran through the fog with a ball in his right hand, he reached Zabuza, pulled back with his hand and plunged it down, detonating inside his brain – only to find that the fake ANBU had sacrificed herself to save him. The altruistic act gave Naruto pause – which was all Zabuza needed, he reached down his leg and grabbed a kunai, then shoved the ANBU's body out the way and impaled the kunai into Naruto's left shoulder.

"You were a tool Haku, and you performed well." Zabuza's words enraged Naruto; sure, Naruto didn't care much about human life – but when someone sacrifices their own life to save yours, and you _spit_ on that – no. Zabuza kicked upwards, intending to catch Naruto in the groin, but an invisible wall of force stopped his kick, and then slowly began compressing his whole body.

"What…are…you…kid?!" Naruto didn't respond, he simply wrenched the kunai out of his arm and drove it into Zabuza's head, all the way to the hilt. In his last dying picosecond, Zabuza managed a face of surprise – a mere child killed him!? One of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen!? Naruto removed his hand from the handle and closed Zabuza's eyes; his anger slowly ebbed out.

"It's over…. We've won." He looked around, Ino and Hinata were mildly uneasy about the two gruesome deaths – but unhurt, and Anko was kneeling, removing the ice senbon from her body, a slow clapping filled the air.

"Well done kid! Now I don't have to pay that low-life." Naruto looked to where the voice came from and saw a short, fat man. He wore a black suit, glasses and had untidy brown hair; there was only one man it could be:

"Gato." Naruto said the words through clenched teeth but Gato didn't even hear him, he walked up to them and kicked Zabuza's corpse.

"Look at this, he's supposed to be the Demon of The Mist – he got killed by this kid, and he's blind too!" A large group of about two hundred bandits laughed at their boss's joke. Naruto saw that a few of them held torches, and made the connection: _Torches… fire… the girl… she was a redhead…so was…_ Pure wrath rolled over Naruto as he drew his violin and bow, feeling the familiar bloodlust and power – but instead of smothering it, he ignited it. A bubbling red haze surrounded his arms as they turned furry and clawed, the muscles rippling beneath the skin before the skin itself ignited – Naruto could feel the flames burning his skin off, exposing his muscles, immolating them but causing no harm.

"There, is only _one_ death, fit for you." Naruto began playing, and black clouds filled the sky, blotting out the sun – the only light being the demonic red glow of Naruto.

"**Dread Minstrel Art: Dance of Death.**"

**(AN: from 2:59, or in the last minute of Iron Maiden's Dance of Death – LISTEN!)**

Naruto stopped playing for a moment before playing seven chords, he repeated them thrice before playing a similar set of thirteen chords and repeating, he began to sing:

_When you're laying in your sleep,_

_When you're laying in your bed,_

_And you're waiting for your dreams_

_To go dancing with the dead._

The bandit's looked to one another as blood began seeping from their ears and they struggled with their bodily functions – it looked as though they were fighting for control of their bodies, which they were.

Naruto repeated the chords, seven, seven, seven, thirteen.

The bandits began to fight one another, but as Naruto's _Danse_ sped up and became louder, the less control they had – until it all vanished.

_When you're laying in your sleep,_

_When you're laying in your bed,_

_And you're waiting for your dreams_

_To go dancing with the dead._

The bandits were full-on killing each other right now, even as they died they made no screams – Naruto was in complete control. Naruto's song slowed down and it became more melodic,

_And I'll ne-ver go dan-cing no more, _

_Till I dance,_

_With the dead._

As Naruto finished his song, the last bandit splayed his arms wide and threw his head back before detonating spontaneously, his bodily pieces turning into small shards and a fine mist sprayed Gato, who was not only in hysterics due to the terrifying situation, but he had also shat himself – several times. With still-immolated arms, Naruto walked towards Gato – a true demon. Gato fell on his arse and tried crawling backwards, never letting Naruto leave his sight, lest he come closer faster.

"S-Stay away!" Naruto grabbed hold of Gato's collar, lighting his suit on fire.

"We wanted mercy too, we received none. **Wind Style: Flames of Vengeance!**" In a five metre radius around them, the wind slowly began to pick up, making an ever increasing _whump_ sound as it went past.

_Whump whump whump_

The winds formed a definitive circle around the two, and the winds beat faster.

_Whump! Whump! Whump!_

They beat faster still; until the _whump_s were replaced by a low keening sound – the wind was beating that fast that it was splitting the air around them. The keening sound reached a deafening, eardrum shattering shriek before it went silent, and the air around them blew into a tornado of fire. It burnt away Gato's clothes, fired off his hair, bubbled his skin and liquidated his muscles, as his muscles dripped off his body, so too did his bones turn molten, before the flames became too hot even for that – and he was simply incinerated into dust.

Naruto's arms were alight, but he was otherwise unfazed, and as he walked back towards the others, he looked like a demon from legend. He spoke, but it was somehow distorted;

"**You wondered where the Fox was – he was here, sealed within my violin. Gato has been burned in the Flames of Vengeance, he is no more. Our mission is complete – we may return to the Leaf at any time.**" During his fight with Zabuza, Naruto's shirt had been ripped, and as he sealed his bow and violin they saw what his two grand tattoos were for. Naruto dropped to one knee and breathed heavily and Ino ran up to him, remembering the deep slash on his arm – only to find that it was sealing itself back up!

"It's the Fox's… healing powers, but the reason ….I'm on the ground, uh – there we go." Naruto quickly stood up and stumbled, but regained his footing.

"When I use my violin, I have access to _all_ of the Nine-tails chakra; when I use a large scale musical jutsu, it sort of takes it out of me." She nodded and they went back to a prone Anko who was removing the last of the senbon.

"You're really something – you know that Naruto? You're just a genin and yet you know your elemental affinity, can take down a jonin and a chunin, use some fucking crazy instrument, and be okay." Naruto smiled at her colourful sentiment and helped her up, only for her to pass out as soon as she stood.

Naruto then saw all of the holes in her trench coat; hundreds of senbon had been speared into vital points, but all the non-lethal ones,_ strange…_ He grabbed Ino and Hinata, placed a hand on Anko and shunshined them back to Tazuna's place for some well-deserved rest.

A day after their battle, Team Ten stood upon the finished bridge with the grateful townspeople assembled to see them off. Tazuna was shaking their hands and giving a speech about how grateful everyone was, when something hit him:

"The bridge has no name, what should we call it?" Knowing that Naruto couldn't ask for it to be called 'the bridge of the dread minstrel of Konoha', he asked for the next best thing:

"How about we call it the Bridge of the Minstrel? After how I took out the bandits." Tazuna thought for a moment and the villagers of Wave shouted their assent.

"Well there we have it. From this day forth, this bridge shall be known as the Bridge of the Minstrel!" the villagers cheered and waved as Anko and her team faded into the distance, Naruto turned to her and spoke,

"Anko, when we get back, if Sarutobi asks, _you_ killed Zabuza, not me – I took out the ANBU."

"But why Naruto?"

"Because otherwise he will want to know more about me – which I can't have; forget that you have seen my chakra venting, control of the Fox's chakra, wind chakra and any of my other abilities – forget all of that." Anko wanted to continue their conversation – why did he want to hide his abilities from the Hokage? But she knew, with the way he turned away, and the way his face was set – she wouldn't be able to get anything from him. _Alright Naruto, the balls' in your court – I won't tell him, but what are you up to? I'm fine with you trying to pull a fast one over the Old Prick, but not me._

Unusually enough, the Hokage didn't ask for a mission report, he just did that evil smile of his, give them their pays (reduced for Anko and Naruto of course) the bounty to Anko (not reduced, for some reason) and told them that they would have a new mission in a few days.

When they arrived at training grounds 44 later, Anko handed Naruto the bounty, he split it evenly between the team and said:

"I could only have killed Zabuza if I had a team – you earnt this." Ino and Hinata thanked him greatly; but they all knew that they were from clans, and so had a pretty much unlimited line of ryo, but it was the thought that counted. Anko took the money graciously, she needed a bit of extra cash after her house burnt down and was living in an apartment.

"So Anko, what will we be doing for the rest of the day?" Hinata asked the question wondering if they might be training more, but Anko looked pretty beat; her trench coat had holes everywhere, her face was showing signs that she was still exhausted and she had trouble keeping her feet – it appeared that she was still chakra-exhausted.

"We won't be training today – you just got back from your first mission, celebrate or something, we'll be heading out in two or three days."

"You got it Anko, I think… I think me and Hinata should tell out parents that we're lesbian, it shouldn't be too bad."

"Good luck you two." Hinata and Ino walked off and Naruto turned to Anko,

"So what are you going to do?" Anko looked at herself and saw what damage had been done to her she looked back up at Naruto.

"In my state? I'm going home, I'll see you tomorrow Naruto." Remembering what Tayuya said to him, Naruto grabbed Anko's arm, stopping her from shunshining.

"What did you do that for?" Naruto let go and explained:

"In Wave you told me how the people in your apartment try and sexually assault you, ninja or not you're a prime target, and what if they catch you by surprise?" To accentuate his point, his fist rocketed forwards but stopped right in front of her face, causing her to jump back startled.

"… I get your point – so what should I do then?" He held out a hand,

"Stay with me for the time being, though I should tell you in advance that I'm not much of a conversationalist." Anko really didn't want to do this; she had spent years building up a don't-fuck-with-me attitude, and if she went with him it would sound dirty, and for those that heard that she did it went with him for help – it would make her sound weak. But then again… in all those years she was constantly abused about worse, so what the hell!

She took his hand and he shunshined them into his apartment, which was pretty good actually: they were in front of the door, as though they just walked in. in front of her about five metres away was his bed, on the other side of that was a corner which held a gramophone and a window. As she walked forwards and went left, she came to an empty doorframe that held that kitchen, fridge and cupboards. Upon exiting the kitchen and to her left was a door that led to his toilet, shower and bath. There were only two windows: the one on the opposite side of the room from when you walk in, and the one that took up part of the wall on your left when you walk in. The most amazing thing she found however, was that on _every_ plank, was a hardening seal, and on each of the walls, floor and ceiling, was another hardening seal, only giant enough to cover all of the boards, along with the giant hardening seal was a giant silencing seal – what did he do in here that required so much protection, and was so loud?

"When you're feeling tired you can take the bed, I'll take the couch." He pointed where the window was, and under it a couch.

"You don't have to do the Naruto – it'll only be for a day or two until I can get back on my feet, it's your house so I'll take the couch, you have your bed." Naruto shook his head,

"I'll be gone for most of the time, besides, you're a guest in my house so do what I say – take the bed." Anko nodded wearily, the attacks on her body had still not healed and she fell asleep as soon as she hit the bed.

Late that night, a frantic knocking was heard at Naruto's door. He fell off the couch and walked to the door, he peered through the eyehole but was having difficulty seeing due to the rain (which he earlier conjured up) and so opened the door. He found a crying Ino and Hinata and so led them inside to the table and fetched them some towels to dry themselves with.

"So, what happened? I take it your families didn't take it too well." Hinata nodded, she seemed the less shook up by the two and so explained their tale.

_It was nine o'clock and Ino had finally found the resolve to tell her dad the news._

_"Dad?" Inoichi smiled at her,_

_"Yes?" she directed him to the table and sat down._

_"You may want to take a seat for what I'm about to tell you." His face took on a worried turn,_

_"Is everything alright?" Ino took a deep sigh – it was now or never._

_"You see, the thing is… I'm gay dad, I like girls." The room went deathly silent, even the storm seemed to quiet as Inoichi took the news; he slowly stood up, before backhanding her harshly across the face. She burst into tears, which seemed to make him even angrier._

_"You filthy human being! I will NOT have one of those… those _things_ living under my roof! Get out, get out NOW INO!" Tears ran in rivers down her face – her dad hated her for what she was, what she _is_._

_Ino talked to Hinata beforehand, and so she was waiting outside for the 'good news'. When she heard the shouting and saw Ino sprinting out of the house towards her, she knew what happened. She honestly hadn't expected it – Inoichi was everyone's friend, she thought that he would understand._

_"Let it all out, I'm right here Ino." Ino's wails were muffled by Hinata's shoulder, which Ino had instantly buried her face in._

_"He hates me Hinata! He thinks I'm disgusting!" Hinata stroked Ino's head and let tears run down her own face,_

_"It'll be okay Ino, he'll come around – just give him some time. Come on, I'll break the news to mine and then you can stay with me, okay?" Ino nodded into Hinata's chest and she ran to the compound._

_As soon as Hinata opened the door to her father's study, he thought that it was someone else – but no, it was Hinata. She strode with confidence, her back straight and her head held high, when he saw her eyes, he was sure that it was someone else; there was a new steel and defiance in her eyes._

_"Father, I am a lesbian, but that does not matter right now – Ino is staying with us." He looked up slowly – he admired this person in front of him, she had the balls to say all of this without stuttering once, she spoke her piece as though it were a demand, not a request… she would have made a good Hyuuga._

_"You are Hinata, but you are no daughter of mine." Hinata smiled wist fully at him, she knew that there was a zero percent chance of success, but she had to try anyway. What she did next surprised him to no end: she slapped him across the face._

_"You are a pitiful man, Hiashi – goodbye." As Hinata left the room, Hiashi was still laying on the ground, still shocked at his dau-… that woman, and what she had become._

"After that, we ran here – you are the only person we could turn to Naruto." Naruto took all of this information in and nodded as he rubbed his eyes.

"I see, well, Anko is on my bed, the couch is a fold-out, you can take that, I'll take the floor – and _don't _argue. *sigh* Tomorrow will be interesting."

Anko woke up the next day to find a sleeping Hinata and Ino on the couch, and Naruto wasn't home, Hinata woke up and explained the whole situation to Anko, who felt sick upon hearing it.

"That's fucking wrong, you can't kick someone out of a clan just for being gay!" Hinata shook her head,

"Not even the Hokage can change a clan head's decision, I'm just Hinata now, and I'm not too sure about Ino." At that moment, Naruto walked opened the door, picked up a scroll and walked out. Anko and Hinata looked at each other confused so Anko went outside to see what was happening while Hinata woke Ino.

"Hey Naruto, what are you doing?"

"**Shadow Clone Jutsu!** You know my thoughts, get to it." The forty clones nodded and unsealed several scrolls, revealing: a large abundance of cement, thousands of nails, _lots _of wood (scores of beams, hundreds of floorboards and thousands of planks and floor panels) hammers, shingles, several spades and shovels, three wheelbarrows and a cement mixer.

"Well I've thought about it, Hinata and Ino can stay here indefinitely – but I want my bed back, I'm going to extend my house out so they have their own section and I have mine, I've also been meaning to enlarge it as well – getting a little small personally." Anko looked at how the clones worked in awe; several times had she seen Naruto make clones to do one thing or another and they were often fighting or joking around – they all have varying personalities, but the clones worked in near-silence, all being the same person, all knowing where they would put everything else; it kind of hurt her head, really.

"But, wouldn't this have cost a lot? There must be a few thousand ryo **(AN: instead of making some kind of currency translator, I'm just going to say the 1 ryo = 1 dollar) **worth of cement here, all that timber would have at least cost anywhere from ten to forty thousand – not to mention everything else! How are you paying for it all?" Last night, Naruto was thinking the same thing: he went over his savings and found that after he paid for everything, he would have none of Kargoth's money left, spent most of the bounty money (when he combined all three of them) and only had two-thousand left in all.

"Inheritance, and the bounty, it's complicated. So are you feeling any better?" Anko stretched her arms and nodded.

"Yeah – I'm feeling fine actually. I'll give the team the day off, I'll meet youse back here tomorrow; while I did appreciate the sleep in yours, I really need a nap in _my_ bed." Anko shunshined back to her apartment, leaving Naruto to his work. As soon as Anko shunshined to her apartment, she felt a pricking in her neck, and before she could do anything, she was on the ground unconscious.

Naruto had been working for a few minutes when he walked back inside to grab a drink, when he noticed Anko's ninja gear. _She must have taken it off last night, I better go return it._

Anko's heavy eyelids slowly opened to find herself in her apartment, but what she saw made her blood freeze in her veins: a group of savage looking men were standing, naked, around her, openly stroking themselves. Anko tried to move but her arms were tied behind her, and her legs bent up tied to her arms.

"Well the Snake Whore has finally awoken, we thought we'd be gentlemen, and wait for you to regain consciousness before we began, hahaha." The dozen men around her joined in the horrific laughter and advanced on her, feeling her curves and stroking her face. Tears fell from her eyes as she thought: _Kami, please kill me._

When Naruto shunshined into Anko's apartment, he didn't feel hatred, anger or disgust towards the men who were walking towards Anko, he just knew he had a duty to perform. He lunged to her and placed a hand on her head.

"**Wind Style: Annihilation: Release!**" A small sphere, the size of a golf ball, floated to the middle of the attackers and bean picking up speed. The would-be rapists were momentarily mystified by the newcomer, and then again by the ball, they were slowly dragged to the centres before the ball began spinning with such speeds that it went beyond the human range of hearing. The twelve men were bunched together painfully and uncomfortably – then the ball exploded. Its chakra enhanced blast wave spread agonisingly slow across the assailants, taking five seconds before it fully covered each of them, another ten to reach the walls, then instantly the blast wave retreated into the ball, before turning the room into an incinerator. The men's skin slowly turned black, blistering and liquefying, leaving not even bone nor blood, the room was devoid all objects, save Naruto, Anko and the table she was lying on. Naruto removed his hand from Anko's head and she looked around her apartment as Naruto untied her.

"W-What happened?" Naruto finished cutting her bonds and helped her up.

"I take it they were flatmates of yours and wanted to… yeah, or someone sent them." Anko wiped her tears away but still felt unclean, even though she hadn't actually been violated.

"I didn't know any of them… my house, where am I supposed to go?" Naruto raised an eyebrow at her,

"Is that a serious question? You've seen my place – you're staying with the team, outcast's one and all." Anko shakily agreed with him and they shunshined back to his apartment.

"Alright Anko, I'm going to leave you here with Ino and Hinata, are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Ino and Hinata rushed over to the shivering – and naked – Anko to see what happened, as she was filling them in, Naruto walked out the door and went round back. In just a few short minutes, the clones had already cleared the ground, dug deep and had laid the cement, seeing them all lazing about – and having a new idea – he dispelled them all, absorbed their memories and created another fifty, with a new task in mind.

Naruto stood with Ino, Hinata and Anko outside his apartment, gazing at Naruto and his clones' handiwork. In just three weeks' time, Naruto had rebuilt their house, working around missions and political intrigue; it seemed that the council didn't want the Snake Whore and the two lesbians living with the demon, but when Sarutobi proposed that they could be under surveillance with even greater ease, they readily agreed with it, creating no further problems for the trio.

The apartment had quickly transformed into a large house, Naruto had extended the walls and created a second and third floor. When you opened the door, the first floor was pretty much the same; in place of his bed was a large table where they all ate their meals – becoming a makeshift family in the process – where the far window was is now a sliding door that leads into a large training room, with combat posts and bulls-eye targets set up all through the vast room. In the corner next to the couch was a spiral staircase that led to the second floor, coming out on empty room that had led left and right, to the left was Naruto's room, Anko's room and the team's records, to the right was a toilet, shower and bathroom, a laundry and Ino and Hinata's room.

"It's amazing Naruto, you've really outdone yourself this time." Ino's praise was true and heartfelt; after she had been kicked out of her house (and two days later revoked as a Yamanaka) she had found a new family within her rag-tag team.

"I hope so, if I make any more clones do sealing work, I think that they're liable to kill me." His clones had painstakingly sealed silencing seals and hardening seals on _every_ plank of wood, _every_ shingle, and the great cement slabs that created the foundations.

"So Anko, what's our next mission going to be?" Hinata had also created a kinship with Naruto and Anko – she already had a relationship with Ino. She had never felt the her family, was really a 'family', and so attached herself to Naruto, Anko and Ino – her courage, self-respect and dignity had also soared in the past weeks, several villagers had also been beaten harshly when they had insulted her family.

"Not for a while, the Hokage has sent out the forms for the chunin exams, and I'm sending you three in." Anko had told her team about the chunin exams before, but Hinata was a bit shocked,

"The chunin exams? But we've only been a team for a month and a bit!"

"Well it's now or at the end of the year – but I take this time to remind you that the rest of your graduating class will be participating _now_, and I've already sent off the forms – so let's get training!" Hinata sighed, of course Anko would tell them and whether they like it or not, they would go.

In the two and a half weeks leading up to the chunin exams, Anko trained the three vigorously. She weaved her Snake Style of fighting into Hinata's gentle fist – which was allowed now that she was no longer part of the clan – she greatly expanded Ino's chakra levels, and helped Naruto wherever she could.

Naruto was currently fighting Hinata, and was having a hard time of it too. Due to the gentle fist, Hinata was already fast and reactionary, but by adding in elements of Anko's snake fist she became lightning fast. In comparison, Naruto's Force Impact style was seen as clumsy and slow. The Force Impact was a modification of Konoha's Iron Fist; his attacks were more specialised in creating distance between himself and his enemy so that he could use a jutsu, or better yet, his violin. Naruto had also discovered two practitioners of the Iron Fist in the Leaf village, Rock Lee and Might Guy, after watching their spar's for a week (in hiding), Naruto had quickly found that he was as fast as Rock, but only with his weights on – Naruto was one of the few people to see Rock fight with his weights off.

The main difference between the Iron Fist and Force Impact though, is that when Naruto _impacted _with the enemy, he would vent chakra and _force_ them away; genius really. This also led to Naruto's great annoyance; Hinata kept using her Gentle Fist to dissipate Naruto's chakra before outright blocking his attacks, redirecting it or simply dodging away. Naruto knew that with enough force his venting could continue through her pecks, but using that much chakra over an extended period of time led to chakra exhaustion. The only Force Impact strikes that could get through, whilst venting chakra were his back fist attacks, hooking kicks and _some _attacks that came from an unexpected quarter.

Naruto threw a jab at her face before swiftly retracting it – a feint! His right leg swung low and he shunted chakra into her leg, but she lunged forwards and threw a peck at his face. He vented chakra out of his chest and calf muscles, propelling him backwards towards the ground. He landed smoothly on his back while venting a small stream upwards to stop Hinata falling on him; her hand was inches from his face, suspended, when he said:

"I don't like you." Hinata smiled and heaved herself off of him.

"I may beat you at close range, but you hammer me from mid and long range." As Naruto brushed himself off, Ino and Anko appeared.

"So what are we going to train on for the rest of the day?" Hinata asked, Anko shook her head.

"I'm giving you guys the rest of the afternoon off; you've worked hard in the past few weeks and you've earnt a break, besides: the chunin exams are tomorrow." Hinata sighed and nodded – she was always wanting to practice, Ino sighed gratefully – while she loved a good training session, she was absolutely beat! Constantly training for three weeks turned them into a disciplined and skilled fighting unite – but it also made them tired; going from six in the morning to ten at night was killer on their bodies, Naruto's less than theirs, but it took it out of them nonetheless.

Anko shunshined away, leaving the three teenagers to relax for the rest of the day. Ino turned to her two companions,

"So what do we want to do?" They couldn't go back to the Fortress (Anko coined the name shortly after moving in and seeing all of Naruto's protective measures.) seeing as how it was only one in the afternoon, so they set out going about the village, trying to find something to do.

They walked around for half hour, checking out stores that were _well_ beyond their price range, running through the commercial district breaking things, and just generally acted like kids, although it had a double purpose, while they were running through the commercial district, they ran much slower and had henge's on, making them look less muscly and more chubby – plus they got to destroy shit.

They unhenged and walked through an alleyway, where they saw the Hokage's grandson being held upside down by a guy their age wearing – was that a cat suit?

"You know I should kill you right now just for getting in my way." The boy began crying at the statement, it was said with a smile in his voice and was under laid with a sadism that scared the grandson. While Naruto would have taken pleasure in seeing Sarutobi after hearing his grandson was killed, but knew that there would be consequences if he did not step in.

"As amusing as that would be, I recommend not killing that boy, he's the Hokage's grandson, I don't think the diplomacy would fare well between Konoha and Suna after that." The would-be killer flinched and dropped the boy, scared at how close he was at killing the Hokage's grandson.

"You embarrass us all Kankuro – you, what is your name?" Moments beforehand, Sasuke and Team Seven appeared. Sasuke automatically assumed that the redhead was talking about him, he stepped up and sneered.

"My name, is Sasuke… Uchiha." The redhead's head turned with such a slowness and with his eyes open fully that when he spoke next Sasuke's skin crawled.

"I do not care who you are – the Uchiha are weak." Sasuke grew furious and screamed at the boy:

"I am not weak! You are pathetic!" The boy turned to Naruto with calmness, both of them ignoring Sasuke completely.

"You – what is your name, Mother wants you blood, you are strong and weak at the same time, and have traces of the Nine-tails on you." Naruto shrugged at him,

"I'm not sure who your mother is, but I know who _you_ are, you're Gaara of the Sand, you hold the One-Tail… you'll find out my name soon enough." He nodded to Ino and Hinata and they sped off to get some lunch, Gaara and Kankuro left in the opposite direction, leaving a fuming Sasuke with Sakura and Kiba.

An energised Team Ten walked up the stairs of the ninja academy complex that held this year's chunin exams, and entered upon a peculiar scene. Naruto saw a chunin push a girl to the ground, Rock came to her aid but got punched in the face, sending him flying and producing a bruise. Naruto was confused at how easily Rock was thrown back and bruised, but his Witchsight immediately exposed the genjutsu, both on the two Shinobi, and on the floor itself. He motioned forwards with his head to Ino and Hinata,

"Genjutsu, let's keep moving." They nodded and walked forwards, one of the chunin put a hand to Naruto's chest, stopping him.

"Where do you think you're going? People _die_ in the chunin exams – a blind kid would never survive." In the blink of two blind eyes, Naruto grabbed his arm and expertly flipped the chunin, not across himself like a hip-toss, but clean over his shoulder. Naruto looked back over his shoulder,

"We'll be fine, let's go." Onlookers gasped in awe at the unknown shinobi's strength as they walked up the stairs. Just as Naruto seemingly 'flicked' the chunin over his shoulder, Team Seven entered. Sasuke was going to announce loudly and arrogantly that it was a genjutsu when Naruto beat him to the punch, he hit a wall in anger then had to nurse his sore knuckles.

As the three ninja entered the main classroom, Shino knew that only he and Shikamaru would recognise them – at first.

Naruto was in front, his blond hair was about five inches long, it grew up, but sloped back under its own weight. He wore a leaf headband on a red cloth over his eyes (which Shino had never actually seen), he wore a black shirt with a black bandana tied on his left bicep, black shorts, a black belt and black ninja sandals completed his macabre look. His belt held three scrolls on his right side and a roll of ninja wire on his left – Shino also noticed that he had two identical tattoos on his palms, of what, he couldn't say.

Ino was the next person he laid eyes on. _Everyone _in Konoha heard about Ino and Hinata being kicked out of their clans, and why, Ino seemed to have recovered well from it. She wore the same outfit as when she did in the academy, but with a few changes: she no longer wore any bandages, she replaced her skirt with a pair of purple shorts and she had a kunai holster on each thigh. Shino also noticed that her eyes were constantly searching the room, flicking form person to person, identifying each of them, categorizing them as either a threat or a non-threat, he also noticed that her fingertips were dancing on top of her kunai – a silent dare to anyone who was foolish enough to try and attack.

But the one who changed the most was the third figure, Hinata. Gone was her timid disposition. Gone was her cowardly demeanour. Gone was her apologetic attitude. She stood tall, with steel in her eyes and pride lifting her head up high. She wore a sky-blue… top, to call it a crop-top would be generous; it hugged her ample chest, but came back and turned into sleeves, it also rose and covered the bottom half of her face. **(AN: What the number 3 espada wears in Bleach)** She also replaced her blue pants with a pair of matching sky-blue shorts. He noticed that Hinata's shorts were different from Ino's and Naruto's, while theirs were baggy; Hinata's were tight, so that she could still fight, but greatly accentuated her _curves_.

As the three members of Team Ten talked amongst each other, a silver haired ninja appeared next to Team Seven.

"Don't feel bad Sasuke, if you want to know anything about anyone here, all you need to do is ask." Kiba and Sakura nodded to each other and stood in front of Sasuke.

"No one talks to Sasuke; if you want to talk to him you talk to us." They acted as though they were his honour guard the way they acted, but the un-surprise that Sasuke showed… he acted as though it was to be _expected_ from them.

"On that topic though, tell us everything you know about Gaara of the Sand and Naruto Uzumaki." The ninja pulled a face and produced two cards,

"That's no fun(!) You already know their names, let's see… Gaara of the Sand: he is a first year genin, he is part of the only squad to come from Suna, and its other two members are his brother and sister, Kankuro and Temari. That's odd… my cards don't have anything on his tai- nin- or genjutsu levels, he's successfully completed 50 C-rank missions, 10 B-rank missions and one A-rank mission – but hear this: apparently he's come back from all his missions without a single scratch!" The crowd around him gasped and stepped back in fear – although not many people were standing close to him anyway.

"And Naruto Uzumaki, that… something must be wrong…. I don't have any information on him, all I have is that he's in Team Ten, he's completed several D, C, B and A rank missions… who is this guy?" Naruto smiled, his deception and secrecy was paying off, but he would soon shake that… _soon, I'll burn them all….soon._ Of course, Naruto had a great deal of patience…. So soon could be anywhere form an minute to a day to a decade – but one thing was for sure: he _would _burn them all, and he _would_ see Tayuya again.

His bittersweet memories of Tayuya and black thoughts of revenge put his body on autopilot, seating him down for the test, only just hearing what Ibiki – the proctor – said were the rules. He was jolted back to the present by Ibiki loudly saying "BEGIN"; he reviewed his memories so he actually knew what he was doing. Naruto looked down at his paper and found that he could only complete three of the questions, and that was only because of Kargoth's strict and extreme education – no mere genin could complete these, Naruto then found that the name of the game was cheating. He looked around the room to find that most of the others had clicked on as well: Shino was using his bugs, Ino was using her Mind Transfer Jutsu, Hinata was using her Byakugan, Gaara was using an eye made of sand and so on. Naruto extended his Witchsight and easily saw through whole bodies until he found the correct answers and jotted them down. Eventually, it was time for the tenth question;

"It is time for the tenth and final question, however, with a new question comes new rules. If you answer this question correctly, all nine other questions will become void and not matter. If you don't want to answer the question, you may leave along with your team." The genin were perplexed – why would they quit now?

"However. Should you choose to stay and answer the question incorrectly… YOU MAY NEVER TAKE THIS EXAM AGAIN!" Underneath all the protest, Naruto smiled – _so that's what this is about, it's a simulation saying that we have to put everything on the line, as we would do when we become ninja._

**[Insert Ibiki's speech]**

Ibiki was going to continue when something green broke and subsequently cannonballed through the window. An arm and a leg shot a kunai each out at the roof, the arms and the legs twirled, revealing a body and a banner, Anko's body. The banner read: ANKO MITARASHI! PREPARE FOR THE SECOND STAGE OF THE CHUNIN EXAMS – PREPARE TO DIE! The grisly warning made some of the genin squirm, but when they noticed that she must have been early or done something wrong, Hinata and Ino burst out laughing. Ibiki fumed from behind the banner,

""Anko, you're early, _again_. You want the Hokage to take you seriously and you can't even be on time?" Anko ignored her brother-figure's accusation and smiled at the crowd, then frowned,

"Ibiki – why are there so many genin? Haha, you're losing your touch." When one of the genin asked what she meant, she narrowed her eyes and spoke with a sense of sadistic finality:

"Because: after the second stage, more than _half _of you will be dead. So cheer up! At least it's only half of you!"

**Chapter three down! Sorry about the INCREDIBLY late update – but I have a solution! So long as I don't put an expected update date on it – it won't/can't be late!**

**Musical quote of the week:**

**_Oh how I love you! The pain won't go away. Oh and I need you! You're always so far away. I cry for you, leaving myself to blame. I died for you – I gave up, everything._**

- **I Died For You, Iced Earth**

**Stay tuned for the next chapter:**

**Chapter 04 – Glimpses of Future Past (How awesome does that sound!? Although I think I might be nicking it off of something… whatever that is, I don't own it.)**


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